Chapter 100: Shadow Inversion (Bonus 2)

Richard drew a horizontal line in his notebook, comparing this information against his own experience.

His shadow had demonstrated the ability to act independently once his ether field was activated.

The people of the Black Soil River Basin considered the shadow itself an independent component of the soul.

Both pieces of information pointed in the same direction: a shadow was not a projection, but a physical entity.

The second book was an excerpt from the Corpus Hermeticum.

Its contents were far more abstract than those of the first.

Hermes Trismegistus—the thrice-great Hermes—was a central figure in the classical occult tradition.

Legend held that he was Thoth, the god of wisdom, and Hermes, the messenger god, merged into one.

One of the core tenets of the Corpus Hermeticum read:

"As it is above, so it is below. As it is within, so it is without."

Richard applied this principle to the relationship between a person and their shadow.

The person was the "above"—possessing form and light, acting in the material world.

The shadow was the "below"—formless and lightless, moving on the reverse side of the material world.

Another passage in the excerpt caught his attention:

"Wherever there is light, there must be shadow. The brighter the light, the deeper the shadow.

The two share the same foundation, much like the obverse and reverse of a coin."

Richard drew two lines under that passage.

The third book was the children's mythology collection.

It held almost zero academic value, but it had one distinct advantage: it stripped complex mythological narratives down to their barest bones.

One story in particular caught his attention.

It was the tale of the sun god Ra and his journey through the Underworld aboard the solar boat.

Every night, Ra's solar boat sank into the Underworld in the west and rose again in the east.

During this passage through the Underworld, Ra had to face various enemies and obstacles.

The greatest of these was Apophis, the serpent of chaos, who attempted to devour the solar boat every night.

But the story included a specific detail: Ra did not traverse the Underworld in his daytime form.

By day, he was the radiant sun god, crowned with a solar disk and shining with boundless brilliance.

By night, he was a ram-headed old man with a hunched back, leaning on a scepter.

The author of the children's book had added an annotation here:

"Some scholars believe that the nocturnal Ra is actually the daytime Ra's shadow—his shuyet.

By day, Ra illuminates the world with his light, while by night, his shadow journeys through the darkness in his stead."

Richard closed the children's book.

He synthesized the information from all three books in his mind.

The people of the Black Soil River Basin believed the shadow—the shuyet—was an independent component of the soul that continued to exist in the Underworld after a person died.

The Corpus Hermeticum argued that a person and their shadow mirrored one another; they shared the same foundation of existence, but each remained independent.

The myth of the sun god Ra hinted that a shadow could replace its original body to operate in another realm.

He considered all of this in the context of the Sphinx's riddle.

The surface answer was "a human."

The deeper answer was "the symbiosis between a human and their shadow."

This understanding formed a bizarre contrast with his own experience.

His shadow had indeed displayed an independent will.

But the very first thing it did upon coming to life was try to throttle him.

What kind of "symbiosis" was that?

Richard drew a question mark next to this conclusion in his notebook.

Perhaps the relationship between him and his shadow hadn't quite reached the "symbiosis" stage yet.

Perhaps their current dynamic was closer to a "standoff."

But that didn't affect his answer to the riddle.

The Sphinx was asking about a universal law, not his unique personal situation.

He closed his notebook and returned the three books to the shelves.

A light drizzle was falling outside when he left the library.

Beneath the overcast sky, his shadow was virtually invisible; without a direct light source, it faded into a thin haze.

Richard glanced down at the blurry gray outline by his feet.

See you tonight, he thought.

...

That evening, at 9:40 p.m.

The door was bolted shut, a handkerchief stuffed into the gap beneath it.

Lying in bed, Richard chose to enter.

His consciousness plunged into darkness once more.

Black water appeared beneath his feet, while an inverted liquid surface hung above his head.

He walked about fifty paces before the stone door appeared in front of him.

The Sphinx relief on the lintel parted its jaws. Fortunately, there was no new riddle this time:

"The deeper answer."

Richard took the conclusions he had spent all of yesterday thinking over, organized them into words, and pushed them to the forefront of his mind.

"A shadow is no man's servant, nor is a man the master of his shadow."

"A shadow and a person share their existence. Each possesses its own will, and they mutually rely upon one another."

"The third leg is the shadow's choice, not the human's need."

He thought for a moment, then added one last sentence:

"A shadow lengthens at dusk not only because the fading light forces it to stretch, but because it chooses to offer a helping hand right when a person is at their weakest."

The Sphinx on the lintel closed its jaws.

Silence.

Richard began to wonder if he had given the wrong answer.

A moment later, the relief moved.

It nodded.

It was an extremely subtle motion, yet in this space where everything felt near-static, the gesture carried profound weight.

Text appeared on the surface of the stone door once again.

This time it wasn't just a few fragmented lines, but a complete, clearly structured block of information.

The text surfaced from the center of the wall, arranging itself line by line:

"Shadow Inversion (Inversio Umbrae)."

"Nature: Tradition of Change (Fragment)."

"Effect: Inverts a mastered Spell Formula into its shadow version.

The effects of the shadow version are a twisted reflection of the original Spell Formula. Specific manifestations vary depending on the original Spell Formula."

"Limitations: Each Spell Formula can only be inverted once.

The inverted shadow version acts as an independent Spell Formula. It exists in parallel with the original version, neither interfering with the other."

The text lingered on the wall for about ten seconds before slowly fading away.

Richard engraved every single word into his mind.

The space began to dim, initiating the same exit process as yesterday.

The grayish-white light decayed. The outline of the stone door blurred, and a pulling force tugged at him from behind.

When he opened his eyes, he was still lying in bed.

The covers were pulled up to his chest; his posture was exactly the same as before.

He turned his head to check the Pocket Watch on his nightstand. It was 11:20 p.m.

His internal sense of time matched that entirely.

He didn't feel any discomfort; if anything, he felt slightly more energized than before he went in.

Richard lay in bed, staring at the ceiling.

Shadow Inversion—inverting a mastered Spell Formula into a shadow version.

"A mastered Spell Formula." This condition was very specific.

What Spell Formulas had he actually mastered so far?

Strictly speaking, there was only one: the Fog Wall Spell.

He had cast it once on Central Avenue. The effects had been instantaneous, but so were the side effects. It had caught several innocent passersby in its area of effect and nearly caused a major incident.

If he could invert the Fog Wall Spell into its shadow version... Richard sat up in bed.

Leaving the lights off, he closed his eyes in the dark and sank his consciousness into his panel.

At the very bottom of the panel, the line of text regarding Shadow Inversion glowed quietly. Its font size was identical to his other skill tags.

He reached out to touch it with his consciousness.

A brief prompt floated up:

"Select a mastered Spell Formula to confirm inversion."

A blank selection box appeared below it.

Richard focused his attention on the Fog Wall Spell, trying to push it into the selection box.

The panel did not react.

The selection box didn't budge, and the name of the Fog Wall Spell did not appear inside it.

He tried again, but there was still no response.

For his third attempt, he changed his approach and simply recited "Fog Wall Spell" directly in his mind.

The panel finally responded, though it wasn't the response he had been hoping for.

A line of small gray text surfaced beneath the selection box:

"This item does not meet the conditions for inversion."

"Reason: Unofficial Spell Formula."

Richard stared at that line of gray text for a long time.

Unofficial Spell Formula.

He traced back through everything he knew about the Fog Wall Spell in his head.

What had Mr. Hutton said back when he gave it to him?

"A cheap parlor trick, not a proper Spell Formula."

The core of the entire process was the Ashcore Grass itself. Because it grew in ether-polluted areas, the plant naturally carried trace amounts of residual ether.

Strictly speaking, using it wasn't casting a spell; it was just striking a spark.

The Ashcore Grass was the match, the breathing method was the act of striking it, and the flame was the ether carried within the grass itself.

The caster's own ether barely factored into the process at all.

So what constituted a true Spell Formula?

The Spell Formula recorded on the Gargoyle should be one.

Richard folded away the prompt on his panel and leaned back against the headboard.

The conditions for Shadow Inversion were stricter than he had expected.

Knowing how to use it wasn't enough; it had to be a proper Spell Formula to be inverted.

Shadow Inversion would only have a place to shine once he fully mastered the Spell Formula from the Gargoyle.

His eyes fell on the start of the Shadow Inversion text.

"Nature: Tradition of Change (Fragment)."

Tradition of Change.

Richard pulled his notebook from the nightstand drawer and flipped to the notes he had made while deciphering On Ascension Within the Veil.

The Solar, Ignis, Abyssi, Moon-Hunting, and Textrix traditions were universally recognized behind the veil as the five main trunks, but "Change" was not among them.

Richard closed the notebook in the dark and returned it to the drawer.

He had originally assumed that since the Sphinx was a gatekeeper in the Black Soil River Basin's mythology, it should belong to the Solar Tradition.

His reasoning had been very straightforward.

In the myths of the Black Soil River Basin, the Sphinx crouched before the temple gates to guard the sun god's territory.

Yet the panel labeled it under the Tradition of Change—a name absent from the five major traditions.

Richard furrowed his brow.

With so little information, thinking too much was useless.

He could look for materials related to this Tradition of Change later at the Imperial Capital University Library.

He was already tired tonight; he needed to rest.

...

On Wednesday, Richard ran into the frantic old mailroom clerk just outside his classroom.

"Williams! A letter for you!"

The old man panted as he shoved an envelope into his hands. The address printed on the envelope belonged to the Dawn Family.

He opened it to find a single sheet of stationery inside, the handwriting slender and neat.

"Mr. Williams: Following the recommendation from the Classical Society North District Office, please come to 24 Highfield Road this Saturday at 10:00 a.m. for an interview.

Sincerely, Charlotte Dawn."

The phrasing was polite but concise, with no unnecessary pleasantries.