Chapter 9 👁️First

The foundry plunged into chaos. Cities that had been proud of technology yesterday were now burning or crumbling to dust. Fields that had been yielding crops for centuries were covered with cracks, from which new creatures crawled out. The sky, once clear and blue, was covered with crimson clouds – the planet was ruled, according to scientists, by "MAGIC" — "Material‑Aggressive Generation of Intrusive Calamities"

The scientific community was in a panic trying to find a way to stop the invasion. Elarion Hart watched what was happening from a tablet in an underground bunker in the catacombs of the Lighthouse. Images of destruction flashed on the screen: ogres smashed bridges, dragons burned forests, necromancers raised armies of the dead, and goblins with wild laughter stole the surviving mechanisms for spare parts.

Elarion abruptly pushed the tablet away.

"That's enough,– his voice sounded unexpectedly firm, even startling him a little. "We can't defeat them by force. It is necessary to understand the essence of the phenomenon. "MAGIC" is not just radiation. This is the language that reality itself speaks. And if we understand it, we can give an answer.

He activated the emergency line.:

– To all scientists who are still able to think logically: a meeting in the Lighthouse control room in thirty minutes. This is our last chance.

A quarter of an hour later, five people gathered in the hall. They will then be called "The First" – those who dared to challenge Evil and won.:

Elarion Hart is a theoretical physicist, the head of the Lighthouse project, who was the first to realize that "MAGIC" obeys laws similar to quantum ones.

Liana Weir is a linguist and cryptographer who was able to identify repetitive patterns in symbols that appeared during impulses of "MAGIC".

Karin Thorne is a biophysicist who discovered that living organisms respond to certain frequencies of radiation, as if to commands.

Daren Mol is an energy engineer who has developed a prototype device for capturing and analyzing "MAGIC".

Mirael Sonn is a mathematician who created a model describing "MAGIC" as a multidimensional data structure.

In the bunker, protected from external influences, they worked without sleep or rest.

On the seventh day, Liana looked up from her notes:

— I've deciphered the basic syntax. We can not just repel attacks, we can respond.

"And it's not easy to answer,– Elarion added. "We can lock down the source. Create a trap that will close the radiation cycle.

Scientists have begun to create an artifact. Using the Daren resonator as a base, they embedded crystals processed according to the Mirael formula into it. Liana engraved symbols on the surface to block the spread of "MAGIC", and Karin developed a biological circuit that stabilized the field.

The resulting thing resembled a small box–simple in appearance, but pulsating with a faint blue light.

"It's not just a container,– whispered Elarion, holding it in his hands. "It's a mirror. It will reflect most of the object's radiation back, locking the Evil in its own power.

To be continued…