Chapter 49 (1/2)
Although he had already put the crystal away, Gawain could still “see” something like energy imaging from an aerial perspective in his mind’s eye. However, he quickly found a way to turn the images off. So long as he consciously turned his attention away from the aerial map and focused on something else, the images would disappear. Recalling the images was equally simple—he only had to call upon it intentionally.
There was no need for the power of the crystal in this process.
Some sort of “link” between his consciousness and mind seemed to have been established, and the crystal’s role in this process was probably as a key… or some kind of catalyst.
After sitting down at his study table, Gawain reviewed the problems he had jotted down on paper, gathered his wits, and attempted to answer them.
According to the memories of Gawain Cecil in addition to what had happened earlier, he could be certain that the changes with the “sun” in the sky was directly related to the Dark Wave on land. Every time red spots appeared on the sun, the magic of the land and activity of elemental power would surge. The so-called Dark Wave was the sudden, chaotic outbreak of magic and the elemental powers avalanching out of control, which caused the erosion of the material world in the process. As for the monsters that appeared in the elemental storms, they were of unknown origins, and could be temporarily classified as a secondary phenomenon after the violent insurgence of elemental power.
The inhabitants of this world were not foreign to the phenomenon of the sun’s red spots and the Dark Wave. It was considered a natural occurrence, irregular but not uncommon. Thus, Gawain postulated boldly that the essence of the Dark Wave had probably passed a certain “critical point”, causing the insurgence of magical power, and when the magic in the world reached a certain limit, the stability of elemental powers would be shattered, causing the Dark Wave.
What then, was the role of the sun in this occurrence?
Did the red spots cause the surge in magical power? Or was it not the causation of the phenomenon, but something that occurred during the same event?
Gawain pondered about this and added a little question to the piece of paper: What is the nature of the sun?
It was a giant planet, that was for sure—at least, that was according to the “information monitor”. However, it was also evidently different from the gas giants that Gawain knew of.
According to Gawain’s knowledge of gas giants from his home planet, they were not supposed to emit light or heat. Even though they were usually abundant with nuclear fuel and emitted a certain amount of radiation, they were “cool” and akin to an unlit furnace since they had not yet reached the point of nuclear fusion. In contrast, the “sun” in this world was obviously a source of light and heat for the land.
Had it been “ignited”? Or was this a unique characteristic because of the differing laws of the two worlds?
Gawain mulled over this. Personally, he preferred the second explanation because the occurrences of the red spots and magical surges constantly reminded him that this world and his home world operated on different laws of physics. If he limited himself to thinking on the lines of what he already knew, he might be afraid that he would be wasting his time thinking about the problems.
There was another important reason for eliminating the first hypothesis: If the giant sun in the sky was a gas giant that had really been ignited and was undergoing nuclear fusion, it could be regarded as a star. The light and heat it was releasing was definitely not what it could be felt right now. Based on its gigantic size and near blue-white surface, the heat it emitted should surely be able to burn this entire planet to ashes.
Gawain wrote down his conclusion on the paper. The “sun” was a gas giant of a special nature, whose activity could affect the magic on the land presumably from some kind of catalytic energy radiation. The red spots could either indicate the increase in energy radiation, but this was doubtful as there was a lack of effective detection methods.
So, the second question was, what was this “surveillance satellite”?
It could be something left over from an ancient civilization, or some kind of observation post left by aliens in this planet’s orbit. The civilization that had built it must have been extremely advanced, or at least, one that was not afraid of the Dark Wave—the satellite, used as a hang out, allowed observation of the Dark Wave which attested to the technological gap between the civilizations. Who had left this satellite (if it was a satellite indeed) here then?
Gawain considered the severe damage the satellite had sustained while he was transmigrating, but with it not having been repaired, made a bold guess that the civilization that had left the satellite behind had already died out or left and no longer cared about this place.
Of course, the satellite owner could also be some mega-rich person who was an unchecked spendthrift, and the broken satellite, to him, was akin to the cost of using a few napkins, which explained why he did not bother to send anyone over to check on it. However, because the possibility of this was really low, Gawain did not give much thought to it.
Anyway, there were no repairmen coming even though the satellite was about to die, which meant that for now, there was no need to worry about any aliens from advanced civilizations arriving to trash puny entities like themselves. This was good news, but—Gawain’s thoughts took another turn—if the aliens from an advanced civilization could come and solve the problem of the Dark Wave, but just would not, that would be bad news…
As for the function of this satellite, it might have been used to monitor the levels of magical power.
Gawain thought about what he had seen in the secondary aerial view (he classified the clear, HD view he had seen for thousands of years as the primary aerial view). The view was composed of color filters layered over the entire land, and their different shades were perhaps indicative of the flow of magical power. This hypothesis was supported by the synchronized changes in the colors when the surge in magic happened, so was this satellite an early warning device for the Dark Wave?
“Early warning” would be one of its functions, at least.
However, the condition of this observation post was worrying. No matter how Gawain tried to command it, he was unable to adjust the images at all. Sometimes, the images even had severe interference and flickered from time to time, which only served as a reminder that the system was about to reach the end of its life.
The final question was: Why did the ancient man, Gawain Cecil, leave this crystal behind?