Ella couldn’t help but nod, sharing the sentiment.
It was hot when sleeping, but after a while, she’d shiver from the cold—she often felt the same way.
“Then I found Old John next door couldn’t sleep either, so I chatted with him about the heating at night. I said, in this kind of weather, keeping warm was such a hassle.”
“It was hard to control the temperature, so if magic could automatically sense and adjust it, that would be great. At that time, Old John said the same thing. Where is Old John now?”
The Grand Sage’s face tightened.
“The situation with you these past few days was extremely dire. You attacked others at all costs. In that kind of situation, only the two of you could be brought back.”
Gus looked dazed, wiped his eyes, and it took a while before he continued:
“At that time, Old John said, elements aren’t entirely without intelligence. If we could make them a bit smarter, we could make this happen.”
Upon hearing this, the mages present, including Vina, fell into thought.
Only Ella shivered.
“You wanted to create AI?”
“AI? That does sound like an interesting term. We did have similar ideas at first.”
Gus sighed.
“That night, we gathered several friends skilled in fire magic and discussed it together. It’s just that now, they’re probably all gone.”
Vina blinked, saying nothing.
There was nothing to be done.
The night before last, things turned out that way—life and death are dictated by fate.
“They originally blamed me for making noise in the middle of the night, but out of love for magic research, we soon began discussing it. Enhancing intelligence is an all-encompassing matter, involving too much to be feasible. So someone shifted the perspective and proposed a clever workaround.”
Gus raised a finger, still somewhat excited as he spoke:
“It was Little Char who came up with it. He’s a real genius. He said we could find a way for the Fire Element to perceive emotions. When we’re a bit cold, we feel low and gloomy. When it’s hot, we’re irritated and restless. As for how to automatically adjust, we could solve that later—first, let it sense feelings.”
What happened afterward was simple.
They first used a small magic to condense a tiny fireball, then modified this Fire Element.
Combining the life’s knowledge and creative ideas of several great mages from the Magic Court, they successfully made a small fire element learn emotions—simple ones, at least.
Then—
“We seemed to have fallen asleep, and then knew nothing.”
That was the last testimony Gus could provide from his memory.
The Grand Sage understood.
“In the days you lost consciousness, that fire element used the magic power in your bodies to sustain and grow itself, and even manipulated you to escape the royal capital, heading north toward a town.”
“How did it control you?”
Vina asked a critical question.
“How could such a thing be done?”
Gus scratched his head helplessly.
“Maybe because, when we were giving it Enlightenment, what we shared was our own thoughts.”
Ella suddenly realized.
You fed your own thought models to the AI.
With such high synchronization and matching granularity, of course it could control you.
“So, what exactly did it want to do, and what emotion drove it to head there?”
This was a puzzle none of them could solve.
At this moment, a faint girl’s voice echoed from the edge of the courtyard.
“Perhaps it was trapped by love.”
As everyone turned their curious eyes toward her, Celes stiffened her pretty face.
“Sorry, I misspoke. Please don’t mind it.”
Her ears had become calloused from her master’s words these past days; it just slipped out.
“In any case, at least it’s gone, dealt with before it caused greater disaster.”
The Grand Sage clapped his hands, encouraging everyone.
“It’s thanks to your persistent efforts and the helping hand of the Saintess.”
To be able to use the magic in a mage’s body to sustain itself, and when that wasn’t enough, to use the body itself as fuel—such a thing, with a clear purpose from the start, was terrifying to even contemplate.
“Yes,”
Gus’s expression was desolate, yet there was a hint of relief in his eyes.
“I’m just glad it was resolved.”
Tap tap tap!
Hurried footsteps echoed outside the courtyard.
A mage from the reception room earlier ran over, clutching the courtyard gate, and shouted anxiously.
“Grand Sage, it’s bad! Someone from the Royal Palace has arrived—something’s happened! They demand to see you immediately!”
***
At this moment, in the center of Herli Town, that beautiful little castle had become dilapidated, most of its structure burned through and blackened.
People no longer bothered with work, nor were the controlling soldiers present.
Sitting in the corners of the walls, gazing at the ruined castle in the distance, relief mixed with confusion in their eyes.
***
In the Royal Palace, aside from Leah, the rest of the Hero Squad followed the Grand Sage, finally understanding what had happened.
Because there were many survivors and witnesses in Herli Town, the situation was relatively clear.
Last night, not long after the great battle, a group of townspeople rushed into the castle.
Their bodies were burning with flames, and the soldiers had no strength to resist, the castle itself turning into a sea of fire.
As for the Count of Herli himself, he wasn’t dead—just tied up by several people, with several scorched handprints branded onto his body like irons, and so was dragged out of the castle, heading north.
The Grand Sage, knowing the cause and effect, immediately understood.
“It used the bodies of commoners as fuel, and after capturing the Count, absorbed his magic power to maintain itself.”
Then the previous question arose once again—where was it going?
What did it intend to do?
“This is a problem caused by the Magic Court. I hope you can resolve it quickly.”
The Minister spoke sternly.
“At the very least, we need an explanation for those above.”
The Count of Herli was of royal blood; now, with his fate uncertain, he could not be left to die without explanation.
Indeed, it was the Magic Court’s fault.
The Grand Sage accepted responsibility and left, with the girls following.
***
“Hey, Celes, you said it was trapped by love. What kind of love?”
Walking on the road back to the Magic Court, the little witch asked the Sword Saint girl.
Celes was embarrassed and hesitated for a long time before replying.
“That’s what my master said. He said that emotions are only love and hate, and all their branches stem from differing degrees.”
“So, you mean, after it awakened emotions, the only two things on its mind could be these.”
Vina drew an inference.
“It risked everything to head north, so perhaps it was drawn by love—or hate. If it was love, what was it?”
Celes’s pretty face turned slightly red.
“I don’t know. It wasn’t me who said it; it was my master.”
“Don’t be like that. I think you make a lot of sense. Human emotions are the same—sometimes, love is drawn to something greater.”
Vina extended her arm to nudge the pink-haired thunder girl.
“Right, Little Elle?”
She had only meant to play a small trick.
After all, the night before last, they’d slept together, and hinting at such things in front of the most sensitive companion was strangely exciting.
But she didn’t expect Ella to tremble, her gaze turning odd.
“I have a guess…maybe I know where it was going…”
With that, she went straight back to the upstairs room of the Magic Court, found the old Map, and drew a circle on the blank area at the northernmost edge.
“Do you remember what I told you before? The area north of the Demon Race’s central region is warm year-round because of this.”
In the south-central region of the Demon Race, where an Ancient Dragon once fell, lies a place called the Dragonheart Furnace.