Spatial Theory

Felix watched his Spell get squeezed out of existence with a blank face. Her expression now mischievous, Lucy tilted her head, asking, "Was that it?"

Felix did not even feel the sting of it as he looked at her dumbfounded. He knew she would be strong, but that was just not something she should have been able to do.

Her not getting hurt, Felix already expected that. He wasn't even sure he would have been able to cut Lorenzo, so Lucy was out of the question. But she not only hadn't be harmed, she had also squeezed his Spell shut.

This was way beyond any of his expectations, as no matter the level of his Spell, he had still messed with Space, and undoing it meant manipulating space. That wasn't supposed to be something you could do with just your physical body.

Sighing in defeat, Felix sat down, and asked, "Will I be needed for the repairs?"

Eagerly sitting next to him, Lucy bobbed her head up and down, "Of course you will! I know next to nothing about Spacetime Runes, and simply having Inner Perfection is more than enough to qualify you. Besides, didn't you Otherworlders only get here a month ago?"

"Around that, yes."

"Well, if you managed to come this far in a month in Runes, then I'm sure you will be of great help. Why don't we exchange notes first?"

Nodding slowly, Felix started telling her about his discoveries, be it the three dimensional aspect of the array, the strengthening power still being exerted, and other things he discovered the night before.

By the time he finished, Lucy was rocking herself back and forth, still giving the same small childish vice. However, Felix could see a seriousness of another age in her eyes.

"I don't know why you doubted you would be useful, you already discovered more than anyone else in the Guild would have in a week, if not a month."

Felix shrugged, and asked, "What about you?"

She smiled and replied, "I cheated a little because I already knew a few things about the array. For example, the three dimensionality of the array does give it an advantage for manipulating space, but it also confined it to this room, while when it was fully functional, one could teleport from any of the rooms in the building."

Looking around, Felix muttered, "So there are Runes in the Array that allow it to extend to the whole building. Now the question, were they destroyed, or are they still here…"

Lucy nodded, and Felix got up. Under her curious gaze, he walked to the door, opened it, and walked a step out. There, he tried to use his Fracture Spell.

The Spell turned out to only be of a normal intensity.

Looking over his shoulder, Felix said, "That gives us our answer."

"It certainly does."

Slowly moving his hand over the wall as he closed the door, returning to the room, Felix asked, "I suppose you don't have any records about what the complete Array looked like?"

"They were destroyed too. There is supposed to be a copy of it left in the Empire, but… politics."

Raising an eyebrow, Felix asked, "Was that what you were doing the past few days? Trying to get it back?"

Only after asking the question did Felix realize he may have crossed the line. Thankfully, Lucy simply nodded.

"Well, that will be one area of research, but I still think we need to focus on Spacetime Runes. Do you have any books on that, or do we only have this room to work with?"

Raising an eyebrow as she showed surprise, Lucy asked, "You think you could build the array back only using this room?"

Shrugging, Felix replied, "Well, it would take longer, but it shouldn't be that hard. As long as you have Grandmaster level knowledge, then using what we already have to discover the rest should be possible. Of course, I would need to know a little more about how the original array worked, as I wouldn't want to make complications."

Tilting her head, she questioned, "Complications?"

"Yes. For example, I don't suppose the connection with the destinations was two-way, was it?"

Unfortunately, Lucy sighed as she nodded, "It was."

Stopping for a moment, Felix said, "Oh. That's problematic."

This meant that if they wanted to rebuild the array, not only would they need to have the array on this side repaired, but they would need to rebuild the connection with those other places.

"How was the connection made then? Surely it was in the notes too?"

Lucy was pouting by now as she replied, "It was. As for the way they did it… they left a special mark in every location this array was linked up to, and used it to form the connection."

"So if we want to rebuild this, we would need someone to travel all over the Kingdom, if not the continent, and place all these marks?"

"Yes."

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Felix asked, "How come you need a mark to teleport? You don't need one when you are blinking?"

Throwing her arms up, Lucy exclaimed, "Hell if I know! That's just the way we do it!"

Ignoring the excited powerhouse, Felix said, "Simply rebuilding it the same way as it used to be isn't viable. It would take several months simply to get to every location, if not longer. Besides, that sounds like a very inconvenient way to travel."

As he said that, he suddenly found Lucy's face right in front of his own, looking at him with wide opened eyes, "You have an idea, Runefather?"

Moving his head away from her own, Felix replied, "From what I have seen so far, be it for the Dark Gate or this Teleportation Array, they formed 'gates' between two points in space, technically allowing one to move from one end to the other. They are surrounded by supplementary Runes that seal one way, turning the gate into a one way window."

Holding up a hand, Felix separated two fingers, "This is a huge waste of power. My idea is simply to skip the sealing part, and directly make the one way window, instead of a tempered gate."

Lucy reached out to Felix's hand, and closed his two fingers, "You think we intentionally weakened our arrays? This kind of Array has already been built and tried in the past. In the best cases, the people teleported were found in a random place in the world. But most were never seen ever again."

Without even realizing it, Felix looked at her like she was a stupid child as he commented, "That's because they didn't set a destination."

Clenching her fists and puffing her cheeks, Lucy retorted, "I know that already, that's what I'm telling you! You need a beacon, and that forces a connection!"

Shaking his head, Felix revealed, "A beacon isn't the only way to set a destination."

"Of course it is!"

"It is not. If I asked you to go to Fìrma, how would you do it?"

This time, Lucy was the one staring at Felix like he was stupid as she replied, "I'd fly there of course. Of teleport, if it was viable."

"Would you go there blindly?"

"I know where it is."

Rolling his eyes, Felix said, "Imagine you never went there. What would you do to go to a place you don't know the way to?"

"I'd use a map, duh."

Faced with her childish behavior, Felix was not offended, and instead smiled brightly as he said, "Exactly! You don't need a beacon in the sky to go to the city, you only need to know where it is. You need to know its coordinates."

Lucy did not look convinced however, "All that buildup for this, seriously?"

Exasperated, Felix asked, "You still don't get it? As long as we can get the coordinates of the destination, then we can teleport there without making a gate."

Lucy's face did not change as she replied, "That's not how it works. Coordinates is something people made, and from one place to another, they will change. Runes work for planetary phenomenons of nature, not human inventions."

Shaking his head, Felix said, "You need to think out of the box. I can't say I have the solution already, but I already have several ideas as to how we could implement this. For one, we could take inspiration from Enchantments, and isolate a part of the Array to make up for a translation array, which would turn our human coordinates into something the array would understand. Another idea would be to simply research for anything that could be used as coordinates."

Narrowing her eyes, Lucy looked thoughtful now, her left eyebrow twitching ever so slightly, Felix noticed.

"But that goes against so many Rune rules…"

Snorting, Felix said, "That's why Runesmiths are losers. Or Rune Experts for that matters."

Her eyes zeroed in on Felix's face, "What?"

Scoffing at the slight shift in the Mana around, seemingly following Lucy's own emotions, he added, "Whoever made those rules were failures."

Lucy did not get angry, and instead looked amused as she said, "You do realize those 'failures' were mostly Legend Runesmiths for the most part, do you?"

"I'm aware they could snuff the life out of me with a thought, but that doesn't make them right. Besides, as a Runefather, I'm pretty sure I am their senior, in Runes at least."

As he spoke, Felix felt the Mana around him flare up, while Lucy asked, "Am I your junior then?"

The suppression made Felix feel uncomfortable, and while the logical part of him knew he should stand down, he resisted it to the best of his ability, and nodded, "You are, and the fact you let those rules restrict you is proof enough. What are you, a Rune Expert?"

"I am. So what, your Profession is above that? Your Profession decides your seniority in Runesmithing?"

Shaking his head, Felix revealed, "I have no Profession."

The pressure disappeared, like it was blown away by the wind as Lucy now looked genuinely shocked.

"What? How?"

Now feeling much better, Felix continued, "For your information, Rune Master lies beyond Rune Expert. And even if you were a Rune Master, you would remain my junior. Accepting the help of the System is also willingly putting on its chains, and the existence of these rules is proof of that."

Feeling a streak of passion, he added, "Rules are nothing more than a set of restraints, created to systematize life."

"But if there are no Rules, won't this lead to chaos?" Lucy knew they were veering away from Runes, but she still decided to entertain Felix's idea.

"I already told you, Rules are for losers," Felix pointed to the side, "let's say I got out of here and killed someone in the street. I would get arrested, and be judged by the law. Now, what if the Queen did it?"

"I get what you are trying to say, every rule or law only applies to 'losers', as you call them. But you are generalizing. Sure, she wouldn't be charged by the law, but the law isn't the only set of rules within the city. Social rules also exist, and she would suffer from them."

Snorting in amusement, Felix said, "Of course she wouldn't. People wouldn't get mad at her if she killed a nobody, they would probably invent a reason by themselves. And for those who don't, the Queen would have the power to create a reason. I told you, every set of Rules in the world are there to restrict the weak, and since all Runesmith are abiding by these Rules… you are losers."