'He could use two zones simultaneously?' Akeru was shocked at the fact that a person could sustain two mana zones with different properties to be in effect at once.
It would require multi-tasking to a ridiculous extent.
Akeru himself couldn't sustain two of his mana zones at one time, hence, he was shocked at a person who doesn't even have perception-related spells being able to do this feat.
However, his shock was amplified by what happened next.
Akeru had instinctively activated '3D Witness' to witness the phenomena.
Exactly when a new mana zone appeared, Akeru noticed that the spatial sphere got broken into multiple parts and formed small spatial disturbances of different shapes.
Not only that, unlike the sphere that was moving earlier, they were completely static.
'What the fuck,' Akeru thought as he carefully observed those individual spatial disturbances.
Langris's spell could be considered a wormhole to the void.
So, Akeru was observing two different things. Firstly, if he was straightforwardly looking at those spheres, they were clearly wormholes, all pointing to the void.
However, when Akeru analyzed the space itself and the path any object going through them would take, he realized those wormholes were actually closed mid-way in their path.
'How can a wormhole exist to be both open and closed at the same time?' Akeru was confused beyond belief.
From outside, the wormhole was open, but from the inside, it was closed.
He was analyzing everything rapidly.
Suddenly, he created a water ball and hurled it towards Aetheris.
Just as the water ball exited Langris's zone, it turned solid while still moving in the air.
"It turned into ice?" Akeru noted while saying that out loud.
"What do you mean? It turned into vapor, right?" Langris' words caused Akeru to do a double take.
'Wait, what?...!!!' Akeru's face widened in realization.
Time slowed down as he backtracked every interaction he had with Aetheris.
'Schrodinger's Gambit... Schrodinger... Schrodinger... why do I feel like I have heard this name before?' Akeru racked his mind as he tried to remember where he had heard this name before.
'RIGHT! He was that lunatic guy who kept an innocent cat in a box and put acid in the box and then said that: from outside, we can't tell whether the cat is alive or dead as we can't perceive it!' Akeru instantly recalled an experiment conducted in his previous world.
'Wait, why is that name used here? Wait, it doesn't matter, The name was probably selected by the grimoire only. The important thing is about that experiment. I think it was an important experiment related to quantum physics. I think his spell is related to one's perception directly!'
"Langris! What happened to the spatial sphere you threw a moment ago in your perception?"
"It vanished as the space stabilized, right?" Langris said, but in the next moment, his eyes widened as he noticed the weird phrasing Akeru had used.
Akeru nodded. "It's exactly what you think. It seems his spell forces us to see the spells cast in a different manner altogether, depending on our perception, though the question is..."
"What exactly is real?" Langris completed the statement for him while having a frown on his face.
"Wasn't his magic instability magic? I don't think it fits the theme that well, right?" Langris asked in an accusatory tone.
"Well, I just said what I observed. It seems his magic is not exactly that," Akeru said with a shrug.
The water ball was still in Akeru's vision.
'I don't know how much science has progressed in this world, though from a person who doesn't know jack shit, quantum physics shouldn't be present in this world. Either way, even if it doesn't exist, Aetheris should have a clear idea of what his spell does or not, so I don't really have a knowledge advantage in that regard,' Akeru thought while trying to remember everything he knew related to quantum physics.
After a few seconds of pondering, he came up with nothing.
'Fuck it, I need to do my own experiments to reach a conclusion,' Akeru took a deep breath as he focused on the water ball throughout.
He suddenly had an ingenious idea.
"Langris, you see water vapors, right?"
"Yeah."
"It's not water vapors, but a water ball, a very fast one."
"Okay?" Langris had a confused look on his face.
He looked at the position of water vapors moving in a circular direction in his vision.
"The water ball has orange lightning flowing through it; anything that comes in touch with it will get directly sent to the void."
A very vivid picture was painted in Langris's mind.
"It will be going towards Aetheris in a moment."
Suddenly, to Langris's shock, the water vapors turned into a water ball with the exact details he was envisioning in his mind.
Akeru smirked as the same thing happened in his vision.
"Tch, I didn't expect you to crack the working of my spell so quickly. No wonder Vespera was defeated by you," Aetheris had the same calm look on his face.
In Akeru and Langris' perspective, the water ball made contact with Aetheris, but nothing really happened regarding the damage they were anticipating.
"Did you forget that I am an observer too? To me, it was just a small breeze of air," Aetheris said with a smirk.
'Huh? Wait, this is a bit more complicated than that. If I need to force my spells to interact with anybody here, I need to make them a common reality for all the observers, or at least the ones who the spell will interact with,' Akeru thought with a frown.
"Isn't this mana zone useless? If we don't have common reality, it wouldn't really matter, no?" Akeru decided to directly ask the man responsible for this spell about his inquiry.
"Hehe, you are underestimating this spell. It has a side effect of indirectly controlling the mana zones under it. You must have realized by now, no? How that spatial mana zone is trying to consume your mana zone with the intention of erasing it, no? Isn't that the reason why you had that painter inside your mana zone instead of his?"
Aetheris' words forced Akeru to shift his attention to the boundary of his mana zone as he noticed exactly this happening.
Akeru had created a mana zone for a sole reason—he didn't trust Langris. It was the same reason why Rill was inside his mana zone instead of being inside Langris's zone.
Currently, Akeru's mana zone was inside Langris's zone, which was inside Aetheris's zone.
Despite the fact that Langris saved Akeru's life, Akeru had instinctively chosen to create his mana zone as the strong impression of Langris in Akeru's mind was the battle between Langris and Finral during the royal knight exam.
So, that had led to his decision initially.
'Wait, wait, think calmly.' Akeru activated 'Still Spectator' as he saw his mana zone being rapidly consumed by the spatial zone.
The world slowed down as Akeru quickly analyzed everything.
'Aetheris was bullshitting. He must have noticed my reaction and decided to say this to make me believe it. Though I don't trust Langris, from my interaction so far, he won't kill me for no reason. My death is not even helping Aetheris dying,' Akeru firmed his mind as he deactivated his spell.
"Stop your bullshit, your spell is useless," Akeru said as he felt his mana zone increase to the previous size it was, the spatial zone not coercing his mana zone anymore in his vision.
"Oh well, I guess it's pointless. This trick really works well when the other party doesn't exactly know how my mana zone works."
'Can he see other people's perspective of things? I guess being the one who used this gives him the ability to do that.'
"Well, let's change things up."
Akeru felt some weight off his mana zone.
Aetheris had deactivated Schrodinger's Gambit.
Suddenly, multiple lances were created around Langris's zone, all of them heading inside Langris's zone.
***
A/n- If 'Schrodinger's Gambit' fascinated you, check out 'Wigner's Friend Paradox. '
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