Chapter 14. Following the Path of Magic

Did you think this day would end with a pleasant conversation with Rossweisse? Couldn't accept the cruel reality? And where did it lead you? Back to me again.

About twenty minutes after Rossweisse and I left the director's office, Mephisto and Odin finished their private conversation and went about their business. Odin said goodbye to me after taking his Valkyrie and went on his way. As for Mephisto, he took me by the arm and headed to a new meeting.

"To be honest, I'd like to rest a bit before the trip to the Master of the Tower," I said, looking at Mephisto.

"We're just going to talk, not fight," Mephisto responded almost mechanically. "And as for your circles, there won't be any problems. At most, you might feel a bit sick, nothing special."

"Sick?"

"You've never used teleportation magic before, so that would be a natural result," the director continued, looking at me. "Or is there something I don't know about you?"

"No, that's right."

Teleportation magic... After talking with Rossweisse, I relaxed and forgot that I had to meet Zelretch - the Master of the White Tower, which was located in London.

As I mentioned before, the bases of Grauzauberer, disguised as hotels, are located all over the world. But there are four special places that are the centers of the entire society of magicians. The White Tower in London, the Blue Tower in New York, the Red Tower in Tokyo, and the Yellow Tower in Kathmandu, Nepal. And if you mark the Towers of the Magicians with large dots on the globe and the rest of the base hotels with small dots, and then connect them with a thread, an interesting picture opens up, as if Grauzauberer has grown around the world in the form of four large spider webs.

I have a persistent feeling that I ended up in a crossover, not in the world of DxD... Even the location of the Towers is very reminiscent of the location of Sanctums in Marvel. Moreover, the disguise as hotels is just like in John Wick. And if you take into account that the White Tower is unofficially called the Clock Tower, then it turns out to be a selection of various things pulled from the imagination of some mediocre author.

"So, when do we leave?" I asked as soon as we got out on the street.

"Right now," Mephisto replied.

At that moment, a magical circle formed under our feet, exactly divided into blue and red parts. Looking at this circle, I was able to read a huge flow of information that left me puzzled: there were no equations or formulas in the spell's information block. Only the most common configuration of magic, such as the distance of the magic, the coordinates of the starting and ending points, as well as the coordinates of the body position and its movement vector. In fact, this was the most ordinary teleportation circle from Demonic Magic.

And if it was difficult to read the information from the circle, I managed to do it, but understanding it was a completely different level. Even with all my knowledge in various areas of magic and absorbed experience of Nagi Springfield, it was incredibly difficult for me to understand the information from the magic circle created by Mephisto Pheles. Which is not surprising, because, first, it is a spatial magic circle, one of the most complex directions and types of magic, and, second, this circle was created by a demon, which created certain difficulties in calculating the true purpose and reading information.

Thanks to the experience of the Thousand Master, it will not be difficult for me to understand the magic circle caused by non-human magic. But still, there is the factor of Mephisto Pheles, which lies in the fact that as a magician, he surpasses me many times over and, accordingly, his magic circle exceeds my knowledge. And besides, it has good protection against external intrusion.

"At the same time, he called forth magic without uttering the activation words. That's what the power of one of the Grauzauberer chairmen is."

Our figures at first became distorted and then disappeared. When the magic circle was activated, my body and... soul began to resist.

First, the colors disappeared, and then all the forms dissolved. At first, my five senses trembled, and then became useless. From such sharp changes in my body, I felt dizzy and nauseous. With the help of teleportation magic, magicians traveled through a hole in time and space, which was not accessible to ordinary living creatures, and therefore, it was inevitable that they felt quite uncomfortable, at least the first few times they used such spells.

I didn't know how much time had passed: a minute, or just a few seconds. But as soon as I felt that I had regained my initial senses, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief. I took a short pause to catch my breath from that nauseating feeling, and then looked around.

This was a wide empty room, completely devoid of furniture. A magical circle resembling the one that appeared under my feet just a few seconds ago was visible on the floor. However, unlike Mephistopheles' circle, this one was much simpler and colorless.

"This circle serves as a beacon, guiding any kind of teleportation to the White Tower to this place."

Mephisto noticed my curiosity and how quickly I recovered from teleportation.

"Empty space similar to this one is required for spatial displacement to ensure the safety of the group, although this place is a little more special, but you have already noticed that," he said, throwing me an evaluating glance. "I am pleasantly surprised by your quick adaptation to teleportation magic."

"Thank you, I guess," I replied uncertainly, as I did not understand whether he was praising or teasing me.

"Okay, let's go," the director just smiled at my reaction.

We left the transport room, and Mephisto led me along a long concrete corridor. After concentrating a little, I noticed that the walls, floor, and ceiling were filled with magical circles, inscriptions, and Runes. But thanks to my Sensory Perception, I could "see" everything in such detail that a truly incredible and beautiful world opened up before me. Magical circles and inscriptions were literally carved all over the surface of the corridor, which merged into a full-fledged and incredibly huge network. It was amazing that the "carving" was filled with silver liquid, as if mercury was poured into it.

No, this network of magical circles, inscriptions, and runes is not just carved on the surface, it spreads in all directions as far as my senses can reach.

"You have good senses," Mephisto commented on my strange behavior. "What you see is the Carillon - the signaling system of the Clock Tower. Perhaps this sounds modest and not very impressive, but be assured that there is no demon, angel, fallen or god in all worlds who can not only penetrate here unnoticed but also observe or collect information about this place."

From what I know, the Clock Tower is located in the dungeons of the British Museum and extends from the Walthamstow Wetlands to Downing Street. The White Tower is one of the largest magical fortresses in the World of Magicians, on par with the other Towers of Magicians. It is protected by hundreds of mighty traps and thousands of powerful magicians. And in its depths, there are many magical items, spell books, and even grimoires.

According to legend, none of the Towers can be destroyed, even if the Earth itself disappears... What gave rise to such a legend? And is it even a legend?

"Remarkable," I exclaimed sincerely, listening to the director and observing my surroundings in parallel. "Who built all of this so grandiose and complex?"

"That's a secret known only to the Tower Masters," Mephisto's reply was brief.

The Tower Masters were the strongest mages of the present day, true geniuses who had devoted their entire lives to their dream. Each of them was a true hero, defending mages and humanity. And soon I would meet one of them!

After walking a little over two kilometers along the walls, whose monotony was occasionally interrupted by massive doors, we finally left the corridor and entered a large round hall with many doors along the walls. As we walked down the corridor, we did not encounter a soul, but now, passing through rooms of various kinds and purposes, I noticed more and more people.

"What is this strange feeling? Are we going up?"

The farther we went, the more distinctly I felt as though we were moving through a labyrinth. But the task of this labyrinth was not to trap you, but rather to direct you to the right place.

"Why do I feel like we're going up, even though all my senses tell me our movement is vertical?" I asked Mephisto.

"That's one of the functions of the Carillon. Any mage who moves into the White Tower must contact the Carillon operator - a special mage, a kind of hotel administrator. After that, the operator will direct you to your destination by interacting with the system," Mephisto continued, looking at me. "And all of this works on the Reverse Law of Non-Euclidean Geometry."

"Isn't that just a theory? In all the books and research I've read, it was said that it is impossible to use Human Magic to build a structure or magic that operates on the Reverse Law of Non-Euclidean Geometry. There simply isn't enough computing power for that!" I was incredibly amazed at such a discovery, no, it would be more accurate to say that I couldn't believe it.

To understand the essence of the "Reverse Law of Non-Euclidean Geometry," you need to know what ordinary Non-Euclidean geometry is. I'll show you by example: with Non-Euclidean geometry, it's possible to build many paths in space that lead up, down, and in any other direction, but in reality, they will all go in the same direction and end up at the same coordinate point.

In this case, the "Inverse Law of Non-Euclidean Geometry" states that the inner space expands, connecting with the target coordinates, which gives it a spatial structure that surpasses Euclid. However, such a space does not obey the usual laws of non-Euclidean geometry or any logic. This structure continues to go in one direction, and it seems that there are only four paths along the X-axis: forward, backward, right, and left. But in reality, any paths in such a structure that seem to lead in the same direction and should end up in the same point can eventually take you to absolutely any point you choose in this space.

On paper, this was written in two paragraphs, but in the world, there are many magicians who have dedicated their lives to the unresolved problem of the "Inverse Law of Non-Euclidean Geometry," writing dozens of volumes of observations and results from scientific and magical research. And now they tell me that magic based on this law works here and even implements it?!

Although I delved into reflections on a quite complex topic, I still did not stop monitoring my surroundings. And at a certain moment, we found ourselves above the ground, as evidenced by the view of gray London opening from the window.

Amazing! We go through rooms and corridors, but in reality, we are constantly going up the floors.

"We've arrived," Mephisto's calm voice pulled me out of the clouds of reflection.

"Hmm?"

I looked around for something unusual. It was an ordinary floor in an ordinary tower except for one thing: I hadn't seen any stairs anywhere. In front of us was an exquisite wooden door, with panoramic windows on the sides and back, from which I saw London so small as if I had ended up in Lilliput.

"Shouldn't we knock?" I asked Mephisto, looking at the only door in the room.

"He already knows we've come," the director answered indifferently. "So we'll just wait."

But we didn't have to wait long because in the next moment, a hoarse voice with notes of irony sounded from behind the door.

"Come in."

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A bit of post-chapter coddling:

Thank you very much for your support >3

However, if you guys collect 100 power stones, I will immediately release the next chapter.