Past Arc ⑤
Potimas took position before the monitor, staring at what was displayed.
Several windows were open on the large screen, each showing different content.
One window showed video footage. Another displayed geometric shapes. A third showed text.
Potimas processed these separate streams of information simultaneously.
All were data collected by a criminal group during a dragon child abduction incident in a certain nation.
Footage captured during the abduction.
Observation records of the dragon child after abduction.
Biological tissue data extracted from the dragon child.
All data held by the criminal group responsible for the abduction was now in Potimas's possession.
Potimas had no connection to the criminal group.
More precisely, no direct connection—this phrase applied.
Potimas maintained tenuous connections to the criminal group through multiple intermediaries and organizations.
The criminal group did not know this.
Potimas operated in a domain unknown to them, appropriating their results without their awareness.
Moreover, Potimas never personally engaged in any direct action. Even the act of stealing data was delegated to others.
The interactions were layered with multiple layers of security. No matter how capable the investigator, reaching Potimas remained impossible.
Even if such a reach were achieved, arrangements had been made to ensure Potimas could not be held accountable.
The research had indeed stalled. Yet Potimas had never intended to involve themselves in dangerous crimes.
Especially not when the target involved a perilous creature known as a dragon.
Potimas does not wish to die. Therefore, they will not engage in any action that risks their own safety.
Only when their safety is guaranteed will Potimas act.
And only after meticulous planning, ensuring their own safety, did Potimas initiate this incident.
The criminal group was a disposable pawn—meant to obtain Potimas's research data.
A hidden organization manipulated that pawn from behind. Even that organization remains unaware of Potimas’s involvement.
Many humans will be arrested as a result of this event.
None of them will reach Potimas.
That was the intended outcome.
If someone could account for every trace of Potimas’s actions, they would be overwhelmed by the sheer precision.
All that effort was directed toward achieving immortality.
Effort made toward achieving Potimas’s lifelong ambition.
A series of incidents, triggered by fanatical obsession, involving numerous humans.
The amount of data delivered to Potimas’s hands, as a result, was disproportionately small.
Despite provoking a supernatural entity—specifically, a dragon—and involving many humans, Potimas obtained less than ten sheets of report paper and video footage lasting under one hour.
The return on effort was negligible.
Yet without resentment, Potimas stared intently at the video, repeatedly reviewing the acquired data.
Simultaneously, thoughts circulated within the mind.
For over a hundred playback cycles, the monitor remained unattended, meals and rest forgotten.
A conclusion was reached.
Dragons operate under a logic distinct from science—specifically, magic.
Dragon scale composition data: only common material names appeared.
Closer to mineral than biological tissue, yet not composed of unknown substances.
Nevertheless, strength tests showed values significantly exceeding theoretical predictions based on composition.
A phenomenon inconceivable under scientific principles.
It was evident—visible in footage of the dragon hatchling's capture: flames expelled from its mouth, flight defying gravity, bullets rebounding from empty space.
No manipulation or trickery was involved.
The footage demonstrated that anomalous phenomena could occur in reality.
Yet, according to Potimas’s assessment, even these anomalies followed patterns.
Otherwise, the dragon hatchling would not have succumbed to breathlessness during capture.
Extraordinary phenomena beyond scientific comprehension, yet governed by rules and laws—unlimited in application, but not arbitrary.
Once that is understood, the rest is straightforward.
Phenomena distinct from science, yet firmly rooted in established principles.
If so, then the inability to replicate them lies solely in ignorance of those principles—human beings should be capable of reproducing them.
Had the phenomenon possessed no rules or laws—truly invisible, unconscious, divine in nature—then even Potimas would have been powerless.
But since rules and laws exist, the phenomenon is merely a natural occurrence within the world, known only to those who have not yet uncovered its mechanics.
Unknown, thus perceived as extraordinary.
Known, and it ceases to be extraordinary—reduced to nothing more than a law.
Potimas devoted himself to uncovering these rules, thereafter immersing himself in the study of magic.
He sought to transcend the limits of science, in pursuit of eternal life.
And he would come to discover it.
An unknown energy beyond the explanation of science—MA energy.
This discovery, and the subsequent research results published by Potimas, would shake the world and provoke widespread chaos.