The Northern War ended with Commander Elric's victory, but it masked the true enemy. The King's spymasters brought news of the true architect of the conflict: Lord Malakor, a powerful Sorcerer from the Northern Wastes.
Malakor didn't rely on armies; he relied on magical instability—summoning spirits, controlling weather, and targeting critical infrastructure with focused energy.
Malakor's arrival created the ultimate crisis for Alex: magic was the one force that did not adhere to the Arren Codebook. It was unpredictable, unquantifiable, and could bypass all of Alex's physical and financial defenses.
"Hemlock, assess the financial risk of a targeted lightning strike on the Central Power Station," Alex requested.
Hemlock, shivering despite the warmth of the electric lights, whispered, "My Lord, the risk is undefined. Magic is outside the insurance model."
"Then we must bring it into the model," Alex stated, his mind racing. "Magic is a system. It requires energy, time, and focus. We must analyze its inputs and outputs."
***
Alex immediately established a new, highly secretive division of the Syndicate: Applied Magic Research (AMR). Its sole purpose was to apply systems analysis to magical phenomena.
Alex hired two assets:
* Sister Lyra (no relation to the investor), a disgraced but highly knowledgeable former Temple Acolyte who understood magical theory but lacked practical application.
* Marcus (the chief apprentice), who understood electrical physics, tolerances, and rapid prototyping.
Alex's mandate to the AMR was simple: Deconstruct the process.
"Magic is the controlled transfer of ambient energy, much like electricity," Alex theorized.
"We cannot stop the transfer, but we can disrupt the circuit, siphon the energy, or predict the output based on the input."
Countermeasures: Grounding and Siphoning
The AMR team, guided by Lyra's theory and Marcus's engineering, focused on protecting the most vulnerable assets: the power grid, the iron road, and the AD&T vault.
* The Lightning Rod (Disruption): Malakor's favorite tactic was elemental attack. Marcus designed tall, thin copper rods connected directly to deep, damp earth via heavy cable. These were installed on all telegraph towers, rail hubs, and power stations. They were the world's first lightning rods, designed to safely siphon and dissipate focused electrical energy before it could damage the delicate equipment.
* The Interference Field (Siphoning): For the critical AD&T vault (holding the kingdom's Gold Standard reserve), Alex ordered the walls to be layered with specific, cheap metals known in magical lore to be "anti-magical insulators." More importantly, he installed a constant, weak, pulsed electrical current around the perimeter—a simple form of electronic countermeasures designed to interfere with and degrade focused magical energy transfer.
***
Sister Lyra, initially skeptical of the "metal magic" of electricity, grew to respect Alex's logical approach. However, her presence caused disruption.
Garth refused to enter the AMR wing, believing the Sister was attracting demons. He started using an ancient incantation when forging high-grade steel, mixing "metal magic" with "spirit warding" to cope with the stress of the unknown.
Alex attempted to analyze Sister Lyra's rituals, asking her to quantify the caloric expenditure required to cast a Tier 3 fire spell. Lyra responded by asking Alex if he could quantify the color blue, successfully defeating his logical framework for the first time.
***
The confrontation with Lord Malakor was inevitable. The Sorcerer targeted the Iron Horse—the symbol of Alex's dominance—as it hauled a vital shipment of gold and supplies. Malakor intended to use a powerful Weather Control Spell to derail the train with an immense, localized ice storm.
The Field Radio from the lead locomotive immediately transmitted an urgent 290 (Magical Threat Confirmed).
Alex, back at the manor, didn't panic. He activated the Malakor Counter Protocol.
* Defense: He used the rail line's infrastructure. He ordered the locomotive to stop beneath the nearest telegraph tower, using its network of copper grounding rods as a giant, communal lightning rod and magic shield.
* Counter-Attack: Alex had Marcus use the Central Power Station's immense electrical energy—which was still an unseen, non-magical force—to execute a massive, directed surge into the telegraph line network. This was not a weapon, but a system overload. The electrical spike backfired through the ambient energy field Malakor was attempting to control, severely disrupting the Sorcerer's spell and shocking him with pure, mundane current.
The ice storm dissipated instantly. Malakor, shaken and confused by the invisible, non-magical defense, retreated. He had never encountered a system that fought back with organized, measurable energy.
Alex smiled faintly, updating the risk matrix. "Magic has been quantified, Hemlock. It is a system with exploitable energy vulnerability. We have secured the long-term viability of the Syndicate."
Next priority: The threat of the original novel's villain is neutralized. The kingdom is stable, constitutional, and technologically advanced. Alex must now look beyond the borders. To secure global dominance and fund the next phase of research, he must integrate his technology with the surrounding kingdoms. He needs to invent foreign policy and global free trade.