Chapter 83: The Diamond from Dust: A Heresy of Tiers

The entire hall plunged into a deathly silence.

This silence was immediately shattered by a tumultuous roar that swept through the crowd like a mountain collapsing into the sea.

“Into a diamond?”

“Is she mad? How is this even possible!”

Coal ash, the filthy residue left after flames consume, the most ignoble dust! How could it possibly be synthesized into a diamond, a symbol of purity and eternity!

The Tiered Order mages in the audience were practically leaping to their feet, feeling as though their beliefs and common sense were being violently trampled underfoot.

A flicker of astonishment crossed Balthazar’s face, quickly morphing into unconcealed disdain and fury.

“Preposterous!”

Amplified by the sound-enhancement array, his voice drowned out all other murmurs.

“Miss Lia, I believed this to be a serious academic debate, not a cheap alchemical trick designed to garner attention!”

Pointing at the two containers before Lia, he thundered, “Diamond is the ultimate condensation of light essence, one of the purest substances in the world!

Its tier is second only to the sacred Aether itself! And yet, you propose to synthesize it using such a base material?”

“This is the ultimate blasphemy against the Sacred Tiers!”

Lia paid no heed to his roar, simply and calmly opening the lid of the container.

She pinched a small amount of grayish-black powder from within, displaying it for all to see.

“This is coal ash, primarily composed of an element I call ‘carbon’.”

She poured the coal ash into a specialized transparent quartz vessel, which appeared remarkably sturdy, its interior inscribed with intricate stabilization arrays.

“Master Balthazar, you believe diamond to be a condensed form of light essence?”

Lia stated, without even turning her head, as she continued her work.

“Then, I ask you, what would be the ultimate result if a diamond were completely incinerated?”

Balthazar froze, a question he had never before considered.

From the audience, Lavoisier suddenly sprang to their feet, exclaiming with fervent excitement:

“One would obtain a gas that dissolves in water! Precisely the same product as burning coal ash!”

Lia cast a look of approval towards Lavoisier.

“Precisely.”

She turned her gaze to Balthazar, her eyes sharp.

“Coal ash, graphite, diamond. In your eyes, their properties and tiers are worlds apart. Yet, in my theory, they are one and the same.”

Lia’s voice resonated through the silence, each word crystal clear.

“They are all composed of the element carbon.”

“The sole distinction lies in the differing arrangement of their most minuscule constituent units.”

Lia raised her hand, pressing it against the quartz vessel holding the coal ash.

“The tiers you speak of, that supposed nobility and baseness, are not inherent attributes of the elements themselves.

They are merely different properties exhibited by matter on a macroscopic level, to which you have arbitrarily assigned subjective definitions.”

She drew a deep breath, and immense magical energy began to converge in her palm.

“Today, I shall let you witness firsthand whether the fundamental logic underlying matter is your ethereal Sacred Tiers, or my verifiable periodic law!”

Boom—

The stabilization array within the quartz vessel instantly activated, flaring with dazzling white light.

Lia’s eyes were tightly shut, her mental energy intensely focused. Her magic transformed into an invisible, colossal hand, exerting unimaginable pressure and extreme heat upon the carbon elements within the vessel in the microscopic realm.

The boon granted by the Second Response allowed her magical energy to sustain such a terrifying expenditure.

Inside the vessel, the carbon atoms, originally loosely structured and chaotic, were forcibly broken down and reassembled under the immense energy.

They shed their disorganized layered structure, instead beginning to adhere to incredibly stable geometric rules, connecting with one another to form perfect tetrahedral structures.

The temperature throughout the entire auditorium began to rise sharply, and everyone held their breath, their eyes fixed intently on the glowing vessel on the dais.

The light within the vessel grew increasingly blinding, ultimately transforming into a miniature sun, causing everyone to instinctively narrow their eyes.

The amused expression on Rellers’ face had long vanished; they leaned forward, their hands gripping the armrests tightly, their eyes filled with a mixture of gravity and fervent excitement.

Eleonora, moreover, unconsciously clutched her husband’s sleeve, the dazzling light reflected in her beautiful eyes.

The radiance persisted for a full minute.

Only when Lia slowly released her hand did the blinding light recede like a tide.

Everyone craned their necks, striving to discern the changes within the vessel.

The quartz vessel remained perfectly intact, yet the pile of grayish-black coal ash and grit that had been inside was gone.

In its place, a crystal quietly hovered in the center of the vessel.

It was approximately the size of a fingernail, utterly transparent, and under the illumination of the magic lamps, it refracted countless dazzling, mesmerizing rays of light.

‘A diamond!’

‘Though small, its perfect octahedral structure—’

‘And its… brilliance…’

Everything about it silently proclaimed its identity!

‘Oh, heavens…’

An awestruck exclamation, like a whispered dream, escaped someone’s lips, instantly igniting the entire hall.

The entire auditorium, after enduring a moment of profound silence, erupted into utter pandemonium.

Every eye was glued to the tiny crystal, their faces etched with a horror that shattered their understanding.

Lia, using a mage’s hand, picked up the quartz vessel, walked to the podium, and held it high.

“Now, Master Balthazar.”

Her voice, though not loud, struck everyone’s hearts like a heavy hammer.

“Please tell me, this diamond, synthesized from the lowest of coal ash—is its tier noble, or base?”

Balthazar’s body trembled violently, the color draining from his face with visible speed, leaving it ashen as paper.

He stared fixedly at the diamond, sputtering and gurgling, strange, meaningless croaks escaping his throat, like a chicken with its neck wrung.

“No… impossible… This is a trick, an illusion!”

He could not accept it.

His lifelong beliefs, the theory he had upheld for decades, were utterly shattered and ground to dust by such a simple, crude experiment, right before the entire magical community of the kingdom.

‘An illusion?’

Lia let out a dry, mirthless chuckle.

She handed the vessel to the host, who stood nearby, already dumbfounded.

“Let the Mage Association’s appraisers verify it themselves.”

Several high-ranking mages specializing in illusions and appraisal practically rushed onto the stage. They meticulously examined the diamond with spells, inside and out, even sweeping detection spells over Lia multiple times.

Finally, the lead appraiser looked up. He first cast a profound glance at Lia, his eyes brimming with reverence, before turning to the assembled crowd, his voice trembling slightly with excitement.

“I report to you, Masters, there is no trace of illusion in this crystal, nor in the entire synthesis process!”

He paused, then added a statement that caused the hearts of all Tiered Order mages to sink: “Furthermore, we have detected that its internal structure is identical to that of natural diamonds, both formed by the stacking of perfect tetrahedral structures!”

“By my sworn right as a member of the Appraisers’ Council, I declare this to be a flawless diamond, composed entirely of carbon elements!”

Boom!

The appraiser’s sworn declaration became the final straw, crushing the beliefs of everyone present.

‘Truly, she actually did it!’

‘To create a miracle from mere dust! What did I just witness today!’

Lavoisier’s apprentices behind him had already descended into a frenzy, raising their Periodic Tables aloft like devotees praising their deity.

Lia disregarded the uproar below, her gaze remaining fixed on the tottering Balthazar.

“Master Balthazar, do you understand now?”

“An element is the most fundamental unit composing matter; it is an abstract chemical concept, imperceptible and intangible.”

“However, the ‘elements’ in your theory—such as gold, lead, fire, and pure water—these are substances! They are macroscopic entities formed from countless minuscule units!”

“You, and all mages of the Tiered Order, have conflated the two most fundamental concepts of ‘element’ and ‘substance’ from the very beginning!”

“Nobility and baseness, sanctity and impurity—these are merely properties exhibited by substances, not attributes of the elements themselves!”

“What determines the properties of a substance are the types of elements that compose it, and the arrangement of these elements’ most minuscule units!”

Even amidst such clamor, Lia’s words still rang clearly in Balthazar’s ears, like the whisper of a demon.

Balthazar’s body swayed violently, the color visibly draining from his face until it was ghastly white, like paper.

He stared fixedly at the dazzling diamond, muttering and snorting, his throat forcing out hoarse sounds—no longer directed at Lia, but a desperate questioning of his own decades-long faith.

“Tiers, tiers cannot be wrong… How could filth possibly give birth to purity? This diamond… it must be hollow! It lacks the spiritual essence of light element! It’s merely a base mimicry, similar in appearance… it must be so!”

He clung to this idea as though it were his last lifeline, muttering frantically to himself, attempting to twist the reality before his eyes to fit his own theory.

He roared, raising his hand, instinctively attempting to cast a flame spell to prove his theory, his power, his sanity…

…that it hadn’t crumbled.

However, as his mental energy delved into the sea of magic, attempting to summon fire elements according to the theory of “Sacred Tiers,” symbols from the Periodic Table involuntarily flashed through his mind.

*Whoosh!*

Balthazar’s movements froze.

A trickle of dark red blood slowly seeped from his nostrils.

The light in his eyes rapidly dimmed; his body swayed, then toppled straight backward.

Following him, a continuous series of soft thuds echoed from the audience below.