60. The Living Equation: Battle for the Soul of Malta
One prisoner asked in a cracked voice, filled with both longing and dread.
“Yes… she is. She’s doing very well,”
Suri replied. He didn’t know who Stella was, but he couldn’t say anything else.
“Stella… she’s doing well… she’s well…”
the prisoner announced to the others. The other prisoners reached out their hands, rejoicing together. Their hands were a testament to both sorrow and joy.
Suri, Sabi, Maru, and Marblem could not hold back their tears. Whenever people spoke of the lost civilizations, they used grand epithets like ‘ultra-advanced’ or ‘mightiest in the universe.’ But the prisoners of the Altima Mine were different. They were living proof that even in the harshest environments, only family survives until the end. Family was the true civilization.
“…The Altima Mine is also a fragment of the Malta civilization,” Suri whispered.
“Family is everything. I built a civilization on the island of Malta in the Mediterranean so that the newborn Marblem could grow up happy. But we were constantly attacked by sorcerers sent by Emperor Nova and the Oracle. To protect Marblem… I had no choice but to hide in the underground Hypogeum. But Marblem disappeared after the Great War… that time was a living hell for me…”
Sansuna pulled Marblem into a tight embrace.
“This is embarrassing…”
Marblem grumbled, slipping out of her arms like a haughty Malta cat.
At that moment, the mine let out a great roar. Kalifrax’s wings spread like a conflagration, and from the depths of the darkness, the Metal Claws appeared.
Battle was unavoidable. The Metal Claws struck the ground in unison. A jarring metallic din echoed through the mine. Their bodies were twisted, half-composed of alloy, and they had no arms. Instead, a single leg—a giant metal claw—extended from the center of their bodies, stabbing the ground as they advanced.
Clang, clang… The one-legged monsters leaped about, striking at anything with their talons. The entire mine seemed to be their playground.
The first Metal Claw struck a prisoner’s shoulder. The black hood vanished instantly, and the body disappeared with it. It had been transformed into a Metal Claw. A new phantom soldier was born.
“That’s possession magic!”
Sabi screamed.
“At this rate… we’ll all become the Oracle’s puppets, not even knowing who we are,”
Maru said, terrified.
The mine was filled with the shrieking sound of grinding metal. The Metal Claws bounded around, attacking the prisoners with their razor-sharp talons. The number of phantom soldiers grew steadily, and soon, they surrounded the children.
“Wait… something is wrong. I thought they stole the entire formula, but here… the ∫(Ψ * δ) dt term… the time integral isn’t converging,”
Suri’s eyes flashed.
“What? Suri… I’m sorry, but you’re at the bottom of the class. I can’t believe you’d know such difficult science,”
Maru grimaced.
“Time is not constant inside a black hole. The Oracle’s formula is breaking. The possession intensity value, B, is becoming unstable,”
Suri emphasized.
“Possession is incomplete inside a black hole… right now, ‘we’ are the solution!”
Suri shouted.
“Exactly! You’re right! B = ∫(Ψ × δ) dt + α(ω − ω₀)² + β|E|²… The problem here is ∫(Ψ × δ) dt. Because time is inconsistent inside a black hole, the integral diverges!”
Sabi cried out.
“That means the possession intensity B will become unstable!”
Suri added, his eyes wide.
“Yes! The Oracle only imitated the α term (frequency resonance) and the β term (entanglement energy). The real core is the integral of Ψ and δ… and that value collapses here!”
Suri’s face was slick with sweat.
“Ψ is the consciousness state function… δ is the brainwave synchronization coefficient… only if we combine can we make this term converge,”
Marblem whispered softly.
“I am the Ψ of the past, you are the Ψ of the present… when the two become one, δ will match perfectly. Then ∫(Ψ × δ) dt won’t diverge; instead, it will converge in anti-phase.”
Suri took Marblem’s hand. In that instant, their brainwaves synchronized, forming a massive Ψ.
“Yes! B = ∫(Ψ × δ) dt + α(ω − ω₀)² + β|E|²… δ is fixed now! The integral is stabilizing!” Suri shouted.
“We are the equation!”
Marblem roared.
Suddenly, Alice appeared holding a catalog message. The neutral voice of the AI announcer rang out.
“The next exhibit is the Hypogeum. A ruin with a unique acoustic structure discovered in an underground temple in Malta, dating back thousands of years BC.”
An image was projected onto the panel. But the description soon distorted, transforming into an echo that only the children could hear.
“It’s your fathers. Listen closely… find the hidden term in the equation. The formula the Oracle stole is incomplete. The true value of Ψ… lies within you.”
The screen went dark.
“Our fathers… they hid a message! Inside the catalog!”
Sabi looked overwhelmed with emotion.
The moment their bodies overlapped, a current of electricity exploded. They were no longer mere humans; they were lightning itself. The starlight scattering beyond the observation dome was drawn toward them, transforming into a colossal electrical storm.
At that exact moment, a Metal Claw struck a prisoner’s hood. A phantom soldier was created, but its body was torn, flickering like a monster of overlapping light and shadow, until it finally exploded. It hadn’t become a phantom soldier for the legion—it had become a bomb.
Suddenly, the movements of the Metal Claws began to warp. They repeated the same actions until they smashed their own bodies, eventually exploding in flames just like the phantom soldier before them.
“Suri, you were right. They’re collapsing because the formula is unstable,”
Sabi said in admiration.
“Our fathers hid it on purpose. The true value of Ψ… something the Oracle could never complete.”
Suri and Marblem, now a bolt of living lightning, hurled themselves into the legion of Metal Claws.
KABOOM—
With a thunderous roar, they collided with the barrier of the Metal Claws. Like the shockwave of a nuclear explosion, black smoke and flashing lightning intertwined and surged in all directions. The destructive force instantly pushed back space itself, shaking the entire mine.
It wasn’t over. As the waves of the explosion overlapped, the darkness became a chaotic blend of blinding lightning and raging fire. Suri and Marblem, the great lightning, pierced through the barrier like arrows of sacrifice, risking everything.
“Fatheeeeeer…!”
* Gargantua: A reference to the supermassive black hole featured in Christopher Nolan’s film Interstellar, situated along the trajectory to Edmunds’ Planet. It is widely hailed as the most scientifically and visually accurate depiction of a black hole in cinematic history.
* Requiem: A liturgical musical composition performed during the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead. Also known as a “dirge” or “funeral mass,” it is intended to offer solace to the souls of the departed and to plead for their eternal rest.
[To be continued…]
Starting November 2023, The Korea Daily is excited to publish the fantasy novel series “Sword of Malta – Lightning in 72 Years” on our website. This new captivating series follows a trio of young adventurers on their quest to uncover the mysteries of ancient civilizations, including the Maya and Inca. In an exciting development, Netflix is currently adapting the novel’s storyline into a film.
The ‘Sword of Malta – Lightning in 72 Years’ is the latest novel authored by Jeeyoon Ha, who created the “Pangaea series.” Ha’s debut novel, “The Pangaea: Finding Xibalba,” was selected by the Korea Creative Content Agency in 2022 as part of their initiative to support the global export of fantasy literature.
*Mark Oh translated the Korean novel into English.
