Chapter 224

The reason humanity was once able to rule over Earth was thanks to “imagination.”

Through the power to believe in things unseen and unseeable, they believed in religion, believed in society, and believed in their nations.

And that very “faith” became the driving force that allowed them to mobilize hundreds, thousands of times more people than any other tribal animals—and laid the foundation for their reign as the rulers of all living things.

“In other words, imagination is the power to make what does not exist come into existence. If you wish to learn how to handle the Source Power, you must first understand that.”

“Uuuhm…”

“The fact that you’ve created a machine capable of observing Source Power is truly astonishing. But simply ‘seeing’ it does not mean you can ‘control’ it. Imagination is the root of everything!”

“Hmm… I do know that the human brain’s internal thought sequence is somewhat related to quantum mechanics…”

“Quantum mechanics? That’s irrelevant!”

Hans, who had been calmly explaining things to Miyu until now, suddenly began to spiral out of control.

Perhaps intoxicated by his own words mid-conversation, he suddenly stood up, clenched his fist tight, and raised it high toward the ceiling.

Then, in a booming voice, he shouted,

“What matters is spirit! Passion! Willpowerrrr!!”

“Eek…”

Hans displayed a willpower unlike anything seen before.

If this were a comic, flames would’ve been blazing from both his eyes and back. The heat of it could be felt even by the onlooker.

But for Miyu, who possessed the temperament of a total shut-in, it was no different from the fires of hell.

We introverts tend to take damage just by seeing those fiery extroverts who burn with enthusiasm for things like sports festivals or school fairs.

So when Hans’s lecture on passion continued for nearly an hour, Miyu finally began to crumble.

At first, she had been sitting upright, quietly taking notes on her tablet, but now she was sprawled out on the floor, rolling around.

—I can’t take it anymore…!

She could barely even speak now, only opening and closing her mouth like a fish. Her curiosity about this new substance called “Source Power” seemed to have reached its limit.

“Hmmm…”

Perhaps realizing he’d gone too far, Hans stepped back a bit and stroked his beard.

The Dwarves had been able to handle Source Power since birth, so they never really developed any theory about it. How could one possibly explain to other races that feeling of “I want to make it!”—and then it simply comes into being?

After a brief moment of thought, he spoke again in a calmer tone.

“Think about it. Take this building as an example.”

He tapped one of the pillars with his fist.

“In the beginning, this house did not exist. So how did such a house come to exist in the world?”

“Well, because someone built it…”

“Right. Because it was built. Then how was it built? Did it just pop out of nowhere, all at once, in this exact shape and form?”

“…I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Someone must have already ‘seen’ this form of the house, right here on this empty land. Through the power called ‘imagination.’ It’s not just this house—everything in the world existed first within someone’s world of imagination before coming into reality. Do you understand?”

“…”

Even after hearing his words, Miyu’s face still looked puzzled. But she seemed to be getting a faint grasp of what he meant.

“In short, imagination is the power that brings something into existence. It allows you to see what does not exist, to desire to create it, and then to act and bring it forth into being. Source Power merely helps in making that imagination into reality.”

“C-Could you please explain a little more?”

Miyu’s eyes began to sparkle slightly.

She was starting to get it.

“Your mind is, in a way, another world—a world of mental imagery. There, anything is possible; the physical laws that humans fuss over don’t exist. Source Power is the force that helps bring out what exists in that world of imagery exactly as it is into the outside world.”

“…”

“What we call ‘The River’ is the source of all things… quite similar to our ‘world of imagination.’ You probably imagine Source Power as being infused into an object like tossing wood into a fire, but it’s more accurate to think of it as a ‘connecting pathway.’ That will make it easier to understand.”

“A connecting pathway…”

Now she really seemed to be getting it.

Her mechanical tail lifted high into the air. Whether from the sensors’ reaction or not, it began to hum softly, making a peculiar noise. At the same time, something at its tip began to shimmer.

But only for a moment. Like a puppet with its strings cut, Miyu collapsed onto the floor. The flickering light that had gathered at her tail’s end scattered instantly into nothing.

Hans, watching the scene, shook his head in regret.

“It started well, but no. That’s not it. You’re suppressing yourself too much. Your imagination is shackled to the material world.”

“W-What do you mean by that…?”

“Think of the Creator.”

Resolve filled Hans’s voice.

For some reason, in that moment, he seemed a bit like an ascetic monk radiating spiritual insight.

“Everything that exists in this world was born under the will of the Creator. Not just the material things, but even the ‘laws’ humanity has defined. Why does every object fall downward? Why can birds fly through the sky? Because the Creator willed it so.”

“…”

Another creationism talk, huh.

Miyu muttered under her breath, her expression one of mild annoyance. But by now, she was too tired to argue back and said nothing more.

“Think about it. Then what do you suppose the world was like before it was created ‘in this way’? Wouldn’t there have been countless possible worlds where all things soared into the sky, and birds flew beneath the ground?”

“That’s ridiculous…”

Miyu started to grumble again—

But then, as if something had suddenly clicked in her mind, her eyes lit up.

“Th-That’s it!”

“Do you understand now?”

“String theory! Multiverse! The Multiverse!”

Miyu shouted.

“In the universe we currently exist in, there are four fundamental forces: gravity, electromagnetism, the weak force, and the strong force. Among them, the weakest is ‘gravity.’ And there’s a theory that it’s because gravity extends its influence into other dimensions, which is why it doesn’t exhibit its full strength within our own.”

“…?”

This time, it was Hans’s turn to have a question mark hovering above his head.

In fact, not just him—everyone else nearby was completely lost as to what she was talking about.

“So, in other universes, the laws of physics could operate differently from ours. Why? Because the balance of the four fundamental forces would be different! But if Source Power is a force that permeates through all universes—those unreachable and unobservable from ours—then… we don’t have to be bound by the current laws of physics! I finally get it! Not all of it, but I’m starting to see it!”

“W-What are you talking about?”

“I mean, the reason you Dwarves can create things in such an absurdly unscientific way—it’s because you’re essentially summoning objects from another world where the laws of physics are different! And the very thing that makes that possible is what we call ‘Source Power’! To control it, you must not be confined by the rules of our universe! Let’s start over!”

“…”

“Do you understand, Mr. Aaron!? This is a discovery of the century! It might even explain why those monsters called [Mystics] suddenly appeared 200 years ago! If an interdimensional collision of some kind occurred between our dimension and another that we couldn’t observe—!”

Miyu, now completely fired up, began rambling at full speed. She pulled out her tablet and started scribbling like someone possessed, and when that wasn’t enough, she began scrawling vast equations directly onto the floor.

“C-Calm down, lass.”

“Y-Yeah, Miyu! Just calm—”

“Both of you, wait.”

I stopped Hans and Iri, who were about to restrain her.

Though Miyu’s frenzy was worrying, I judged it best not to interfere right now.

She was on the verge of a breakthrough—a state just before enlightenment. In fantasy terms, it was like a wizard standing on the threshold of ascending to a higher circle.

If we interrupted her now, we might rob her of this fleeting moment of realization forever. I thought this could be her first and last chance.

Quietly, I ushered Hans, Iri, and Evangeline outside. I apologized and asked them to leave the room for a while.

“Ah, understood. Call us back once she’s calmed down.”

“Will do.”

After sending everyone out, I remained alone beside Miyu, watching her closely.

Concerned she might harm herself, I activated a biometric scanner, carefully monitoring the various readings emitted from her small body to assist her.

When her body signaled hunger, I brought food and fed her directly as she continued staring at her tablet. When the signal came for a restroom break, I asked Iri to help her with it.

Even then, Miyu kept muttering to herself, scribbling massive equations, or staring at things invisible to our eyes.

I took photos of every formula, note, and blueprint she had scattered all over the room, saving them carefully while staying up all night to ensure she wasn’t disturbed.

After nearly two days of nonstop frenzy, Miyu finally collapsed and fell asleep in an instant, like a person whose battery had run out.

Out of curiosity, I secretly checked the contents of her tablet—and to my surprise, its storage had increased by dozens of terabytes in just two days. The fact that most of that space was filled with document and image files was astonishing.

After two days of madness and a full day of sleep, Miyu finally woke up.

“Uuuh… M-My body…?”

The moment she got up, she groaned in pain.

After staying up for two days straight, thinking nonstop without moving an inch, it was only natural for her muscles to ache.

“You’re finally awake.”

“M-Mr. Aaron…? What happened to me?”

It seemed she could barely remember what kind of state she’d been in.

I explained everything that had happened, and soon, she appeared to recall fragments of her two-day rampage.

“Ah… I-I’m sorry…”

“It’s fine. There’s nothing to apologize for.”

And though I didn’t point it out, her expression for someone apologizing looked oddly refreshed.

Like the saying goes—you can’t scold a smiling face. Seeing Miyu’s bright and satisfied expression… at least for me, there was no way I could bring myself to scold her.

The corners of my lips lifted unconsciously as a gentle smile formed.

“W-Why are you smiling…?”

“No, it’s nothing. Anyway, now that you’ve got a grasp of ‘Source Power’—”

“Of course!”

Miyu cut me off before I even finished.

Even after waking up, her excitement hadn’t faded. It might have been her most energetic response yet. Her eyes sparkled as she shouted at me.

“Let’s start right away! Here and now!”

It was time to reclaim the [Cloud Spider] and the [Corpse Eater].

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