Chapter 149: Echo of Truth

Compton’s experimental data finally ended the quarrel that had lasted for days.

The particle faction achieved a complete victory.

At the top of the mage tower, Lia leaned back in her chair, holding the special issue of the Journal of Magical Theory in her hand.

The sunlight outside the window was a bit blinding.

Maxwell’s equations unified the macroscopic world of electromagnetism.

The photon theory opened the door to the microscopic world.

These two great mountains had been moved to this world by her in just a few short months.

The rules of the world had been touched.

Lia tossed the journal onto the table and was about to stand up to pour a glass of water.

Boom.

No sound.

It was an explosion in her perception.

The magical elements around her instantly went berserk.

The elements that had been docile and wandering in the air now seemed to have received a summons from some supreme command, madly converging toward the top floor of the mage tower.

Klein was organizing scrolls in front of the bookshelf.

He whipped his head around.

His blue pupils locked onto Lia.

“Lia?”

He dropped the scroll and stepped in front of her in one stride.

Lia couldn’t hear.

Her world was drowned in magic power.

The echo of truth.

Previous echoes had been like trickling streams, nourishing the spirit and purifying the magic power.

This time was different.

This time it was a tsunami.

Two completely different laws of power collided in her spiritual sea.

One vast, continuous, encompassing all things—that was the unification of the electromagnetic field.

One tiny, discrete, sharp as a blade—that was the quantization of energy.

Lia felt like her body was a balloon about to burst.

Her bones made cracking sounds under the unbearable strain.

Crack.

Intense pain.

Every inch of muscle was being torn apart, then reassembled.

Every nerve was being burned through, then reconnected.

“Adèle! Activate the defensive array! Maximum level!”

Klein’s voice trembled.

His hands pressed on Lia’s shoulders, and his vast mental power surged out without reservation, trying to sort out those raging energies.

It was useless.

This energy was on too high a level.

It ignored Klein’s mental power and acted directly on Lia’s origin.

Adèle rushed up from downstairs.

She still held half a bottle of potion in her hand.

Seeing the scene before her, the potion bottle shattered on the ground.

Lia was suspended in midair.

A string of golden runes rotated around her.

Light bands formed by four rows of formulas enveloped her like planetary rings.

And at the very center of the light ring, a dazzling light point pulsed.

It was discontinuous.

It pulsed one by one.

With each pulse, a faint black crack appeared in the surrounding space.

“What is this…”

Adèle covered her mouth, pressed against the wall by the overflowing magic power, unable to move.

Lia felt like she had died once, but then immediately came back to life.

Her spiritual sea had undergone a qualitative change.

The original mental power lake had completely vanished.

In its place was a profound starry sky.

In the center of the starry sky floated several assimilated models.

Two of the models were particularly striking.

The one on the left was woven from countless lines, forming a perfect closed spherical body, representing the continuity and unity of the field.

The one on the right was a crystal that constantly collapsed and expanded, representing the discreteness and outburst of energy.

No need for construction or incantation.

These two models were directly engraved into her soul.

As long as she wanted, she could call them up at any time.

The intense pain in her body began to subside.

In its place was an unprecedented sense of fullness.

Magic power surged through her body, thick like mercury.

Lia opened her eyes.

Golden light flowed in the depths of her eyes, then faded away.

She slowly descended to the ground.

The moment her heels touched the floor, she staggered a bit.

She felt that her perspective had changed greatly.

Previously, to look at Klein, she had to tilt her head up; if she looked straight ahead, her line of sight only reached his chest.

Now.

When she looked straight ahead, her line of sight fell on Klein’s chin.

Klein was stunned.

He subconsciously reached out to steady Lia.

The palm that touched her was no longer a slender shoulder, but a rounded and firm line.

The robe that had once fit perfectly now looked utterly ridiculous.

The cuffs had shrunk to her elbows.

The hem had turned into a miniskirt, exposing most of her long, fair legs.

“I…”

Lia spoke.

Her voice had changed.

It had become more magnetic, yet still crisp.

She looked down at herself.

The fabric at her chest was stretched a bit tight.

Lia tugged at the constricting collar.

Adèle crawled up from the corner of the wall.

She widened her eyes and looked Lia up and down.

“Lia?”

“It’s… it’s me.”

“You… you’ve evolved?”

Adèle ran over and gestured at her height.

Originally, Lia had been half a head shorter than her.

Now Lia was half a head taller than her.

“This is too exaggerated!”

Adèle pinched Lia’s arm. “This skin, this figure…

What standards does the echo of truth use for transformation?”

Klein withdrew his hand.

He turned around and took a large spare robe from the coat rack.

“Put this on.”

He draped the robe over Lia, wrapping her up tightly.

“Thank you.”

Lia gathered the robe around her.

The change in her body was secondary.

What mattered was the power.

She clenched her fist.

The air exploded in her palm.

Seventh ring.

No need to go to the Magic Association for certification; she could sense it herself.

Her total magic power had more than doubled tenfold.

Even more importantly, those two solidified models.

“Let’s go to the training ground.”

Lia looked up at Klein.

“I want to try out the two new spells.”

Klein nodded.

“Let’s go.”

The training ground of Klein’s mage tower had been upgraded recently; the surroundings were now walls cast from anti-magic metal, engraved with defensive runes.

Normally, this was where Klein tested high-level magic.

Lia stood in the center of the field.

Klein and Adèle stood behind the protective railing.

Lia took a deep breath.

She raised her hand.

She raised her left hand.

Her mental power touched the spherical model on the left side of the starry sky.

Maxwell’s equations.

Hum.

No special effects, not even any visible magical glow.

But in Klein’s perception, the “field” of the entire training ground had changed.

Wherever Lia’s palm pointed.

The electric charge and magnetic field lines in the space were forcibly distorted.

The changing electric field generated a magnetic field.

Lia curled her five fingers.

In the corner of the training ground, a pile of discarded iron golem wreckage trembled.

Then.

Boom!

Dozens of tons of metal wreckage were instantly compressed together by an invisible force.

It wasn’t simple magnetic attraction.

It was a change in the properties of space.

The magnetic field strength in that area had been altered by Lia to a terrifying value.

The metal wreckage was kneaded into a solid iron ball.

Only the size of a fist.

For this, Klein gave his evaluation.

“In this domain, you are the rule.”

Lia released her hand.

The iron ball fell to the ground, smashing a deep pit.

This was just a small test of her abilities.

This model granted her complete dominion over the electromagnetic environment.

As long as her mental power was sufficient, she could conjure thunderstorms with her hands, shield all electromagnetic signals, or even…

Lia looked at her right hand.

Next came the main event.

Quantum.

An extremely dangerous intuition made Klein instantly activate three layers of shields.

“Adèle, step back.”

Klein said in a low voice.

Lia extended her index finger.

Her fingertip aimed at a target at the far end of the training ground.

It was made of precious spirit crystal, specifically for testing the intensity of high-ring magic; theoretically, it could even withstand a direct hit from a ninth-ring spell.

“Photon…”

Lia whispered.

She mobilized all the magic power in her body, forcibly compressing the vast magic power into discrete “quanta.”

Then, she endowed them with extremely high frequencies.

The higher the frequency, the greater the energy.

Violet light?

No.

That was a high-energy particle stream.

A point of white light lit up at her fingertip.

Very small.

Only the size of a grain of rice.

Whoosh.

The white light shot out.

At the speed of light.

Before Klein could react, a chunk of the spirit crystal target vanished into thin air.

A two-centimeter-diameter round hole appeared at the bullseye.

The edges of the round hole were smooth as a mirror.

The beam had penetrated the target, penetrated the anti-magic metal wall behind it, penetrated the base of the mage tower, and finally vanished into the unknown.

The training ground fell into dead silence.

Adèle’s mouth hung open, her jaw nearly dropping to the ground.

“What was that?”

“Particle stream.”

Lia looked at her fingertip.

In that instant just now, she had fired billions of billions of high-energy particles.

Each particle was a bullet.

The molecular structure of the spirit crystal was as fragile as paper in front of these bullets; the spot it was hit became basic particles.

This was the beauty of brute force.

As long as the energy of a single particle exceeded the binding energy of the material, nothing could stand in its way.

If there was.

Then just increase the frequency further.

Klein walked up to the target.

He reached out and touched the round hole.

There was no trace of heat on it.

Because the energy was released too quickly, the heat hadn’t even had time to conduct.

“The penetration power has already surpassed ninth-ring single-target magic.”

Lia smiled.

Klein turned to look at Lia.

There was a hint of complexity in his eyes.

“Your destructive power now is already stronger than mine.”

Her body swayed.

A feeling of emptiness surged up.

This one shot of high-energy particle stream had drained a third of her magic power.

Klein instantly appeared at her side and supported her waist.

This height was just right now.

His arm wrapped around her waist side, and Lia’s head rested perfectly on his shoulder.

“Tired?”

“Yeah.”

Lia leaned her weight against him.

“Hungry.”

“What do you want to eat?”

“Meat.”

Lia looked up at Klein, who was close at hand.

“A lot of meat.”

Klein looked at her.

The little girl he once had to look down at was gone.

Now, Lia’s eyes flowed with a breathtaking charm.

Especially under that ill-fitting robe, where her curves were faintly visible.

Klein looked away.

His Adam’s apple bobbed.

“Adèle.”

“Here!”

Adèle, who had been spacing out, jumped in fright.

“Go prepare food.”

Klein supported Lia as they walked out.

“And go buy a few sets of clothes.”

“What… size?”

Adèle looked at Lia’s back.

Klein was silent for two seconds.

His palm was pressed against Lia’s waist side.

That curve.

That feel.

“Largest size.”

Klein said.

Lia pinched the soft flesh at his waist.

“Am I that fat?”

“It’s tall.”

Klein’s expression didn’t change.

“And…”

He leaned down and whispered something in Lia’s ear.

“Your magic power fluctuations are too strong now; ordinary clothes can’t withstand them.”

Lia pouted.

“Excuse me.”

The two walked out of the training ground.

Adèle stayed in place, looking at the shattered spirit crystal target.

She reached out and gestured at the hole.

Then she thought of the apprentice robe that had been burst open on Lia earlier.

“This isn’t an echo of truth at all…”

Adèle muttered to herself.

“This is clearly the illegitimate daughter of the goddess of magic.”

She sighed and resignedly went to prepare food and clothes.

It seemed that life in the mage tower would be even livelier from now on.

Both academically. And in daily life.