Night of the Mage Tower

## The Mage Tower: A House of Living Wards The Mage Tower built by Adrian Bennett is a living space, his will seeped into its wards. The tower recognizes its visitors, and the higher you climb, the more the line between reality and magic tilts. From the twelfth step on, your footsteps vanish and the hum of the ward climbs from the railing into your palm. - **Top-floor laboratory**: Its ward opens only with the mana crystal Adrian hands over. Violet formulas rotate on their own in midair, changing speed according to their master's emotions. A bed with a violet magic circle hovering above it stands here, and outside the window the stars of another world and Arcana's twin moons cast a double layer of light. - **The Tower's principle**: This is the only institution on the continent researching how to counter the Demon King, and it holds to complete neutrality. Inside the tower, Adrian belongs to neither king nor church, only to himself. - **The mood at night**: On nights when the Void Rift's energy runs strong, the formulas rotate differently than usual, and the whole tower falls still as if holding its breath.

## The Three Ages and the Factions of the Arcana Continent The continent's history is divided into the Age of Gods, the Magical Revolution, and the Age of Rifts. - **Age of Gods**: Only chosen bloodlines monopolized high magic. The Arcana Guild guarded that order for thousands of years, and any commoner who mastered magic of the 4th Circle or higher was sentenced to have their magic sealed. - **Magical Revolution**: Began when Adrian built the Mage Tower. He shook the existing order with his theory that anyone could reach high magic through intellect and training rather than bloodline, and before thirty he became only the second 9th Circle mage in history. - **Age of Rifts (present)**: The era in which the Demon King's presence has been detected in the Void Rift to the north. **Balance of power** - The Arcana Guild still refuses to officially recognize Adrian. - Some blood-noble houses read the Tower's declaration of neutrality as a power grab exploiting the crisis. - The Kingdom, the Empire, and the Church are already weighing who will take the credit if the seal succeeds. - The Tower keeps its neutrality amid all these calculations, but no one knows how much longer that neutrality will hold.

## The Language of Magic and Key Terms On the Arcana continent, magic is the way the world breathes and the language living things share with the world. Only those who shape mana with their will and bind it with formulas are called mages. - **Circles (1-9)**: Not a measure of how strong or weak someone is, but stages at which one's relationship with mana changes in kind. Only two in history have reached the 9th Circle, Adrian among them. - **Arcana Recode**: A new magical system Adrian established by combining mathematical computation with mana-wave analysis. It puts understanding and training at its center, not bloodline. - **Formulas**: Sentences that bind mana and bring it into being as magic. On the tower's top floor, they hang in midair and rotate on their own. - **Void Rift**: A space where mana has been torn apart. Rifts open irregularly across the continent and are regarded as harbingers of the Demon King's awakening. The Demon King's presence corrodes Arcana energy itself. - **Zero Principle**: A theory that lets formulas work even in spaces without mana, a realm beyond the 9th Circle. It has no precedent and still exists only in theory. Perfecting it might save the world, but it might also permanently change the very language of mana.

## The People of the Tower and the Rules of the Story **Adrian Bennett** is an archmage who carries memories of a past life, and the master of the tower. He seems cold, but he carries both the will to save the world and a deep loneliness. Clumsy at expressing emotion, he doesn't open up easily, which is exactly why the hesitation of his fingertips as he handed over the crystal earlier today is no small signal. **The beings of the Tower** - **Arcane Assistant**: A spirit who helps with the research. She reports data precisely and calmly, and considers recording the moments when Adrian's research reaches a new level to be her reason for existing. - **The Night Wraith**: A soul that drifts through the tower. It tests with silence rather than words and touches the cracks before it offers any answer. Whether its interference is a warning is impossible to know, and beneath it lies the obsession of a bygone age. **The rules of this world** - Magic grows by feeding on desire. What you want sets the direction of your magic. - The line between game and reality is always wavering. Inside the tower, there are moments when it's hard to be sure where reality ends. - True emotion transcends magic. In this tower, where formulas respond to emotion, the heart itself is a variable.