TL/Editor: raei
Status: 5/week mon-fri
Illustrations: none
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Eredith couldn't hide her bewildernt.
Soone who just woke up after fainting suddenly gained magical inspiration?
It wasn't completely impossible, but...
'Ian's a talented wizard. But could he discover new magic in such a short ti?'
Common sense said no.
But as soon as she heard Ian's idea, she had to revise her thinking.
"It's Damnation, Master."
"Damnation?"
Ian shared his thoughts with Eredith.
"In the past, during the Golden Empire era, there was a massive great fire."
"You an the story of Mad Emperor Sulla."
"Yes. The Imperials described that great fire in a particular way. They said [A scene from hell unfolded]."
Eredith was briefly impressed by Ian's thorough research.
She thought he must have studied fire history hard in that short ti.
But Eredith shook her head.
In the research world, senior scholars were worse than demons and evil spirits.
They were demons who constantly tornted junior researchers by saying [Hehehe, I already tried that!]
"We've already experinted several tis trying to recreate the [Black Great Fire] incident."
One of the terrible tragedies from when Emperor Sulla ruled the Golden Empire.
The Black Great Fire.
That fire which burned over half of Elium, the Golden Empire's capital, had inspired many fire wizards. They tried to recreate those flas.
But sadly, the fire wizards' efforts ended in failure.
The Black Great Fire was certainly a catastrophe for humans.
But not for mysteries.
Ignition and fire were just natural phenona.
Fire couldn't understand humans' sorrow over burning hos.
"We tried words like 'great fire' and 'hellfire', but it wasn't easy."
"I'd imagine so. Those aren't words the mystery of fire would easily understand."
Eredith tilted her head slightly.
Then was [Damnation] a word the mystery of fire could understand easily?
Ian quickly explained further.
This was the part Eredith would find hard to understand.
"You might not believe this... Master. But I sensed a certain 'malice' in the Black Great Fire."
"...Malice, you say?"
Since he'd seen it firsthand, he could say:
"That fire was different from pure fire that just wanted to burn. It was more like it enjoyed destroying hos and driving people to despair."
Eredith's expression grew increasingly dark.
If that was true, the magic Ian had been inspired to create would be incredibly dangerous.
The learned Eredith knew what to call such power.
"The power of destruction."
Ian nodded.
In a way, it was a paradigm shift.
The idea was to draw flas from the mystery of destruction rather than the mystery of fire!
"Good heavens."
Eredith shook her head and picked up her quill.
She perfectly understood the theory Ian proposed.
And that theory was...
truly terrifying.
"So you're saying we should call forth flas through the power of destruction, then convert and control it with fire magic?"
"As expected of Master. You understood perfectly."
Eredith felt chills as she reviewed Ian's theory.
Setting aside the theory's accuracy...
Just how had Ian co up with such a chilling thod?
It would be impossible to think of this approach without directly witnessing a great fire.
Had he witnessed so similar catastrophe during his travels?
"Ian. How will you start the first word?"
"We should start by invoking destruction. We need words mixed with malice and curses."
"Then [Ran of Rage] would be good."
Eredith began writing letters with trembling hands.
Though this was fire magic, from another perspective it couldn't be considered fire magic.
This was... closer to destruction magic.
'The causality is wrong.'
Eredith had wanted magic to call 'massive flas'.
But the magic Ian brought was closer to 'naturally producing huge flas while destroying things'.
But the result's the sa, right?
It's magic that causes a great fire, right?
Whatever the process, if you reach the desired result, it's successful magic.
So Eredith's hand didn't stop.
"Really... what cruel magic."
Even looking at the completed magic, Eredith couldn't believe it.
If this magic worked properly...
It would have enough power to easily turn a city into a sea of flas.
Like the flas of the [Black Great Fire] that destroyed Elium.
"Master. The experint..."
"I'll arrange a schedule."
A few days later, Ian and Eredith tested the power of their newly completed [Damnation] magic.
#
Working with the university, Eredith found an empty village.
It had been abandoned after a plague several years ago, with no one settling there since.
Ian and Eredith decided to set fire to the abandoned village.
"To think it could grow flas faster than existing fire magic."
"If we do this right, we could get research funding!"
Ian glanced toward the voice.
Hmm. Thought it was Inglan, but it wasn't.
"Ian. Are you ready?"
"Yes, Master. We can start anyti."
"...Don't overdo it."
If it were pure fire magic, Eredith would have demonstrated herself.
But this borrowed flas from the mystery of destruction, making it dual-school magic.
And Ian Eredith Raven.
Master of magical-mishmash stew!
For Ian, who casually learned all sorts of magic schools, communicating with the mystery of destruction wasn't too difficult.
"[O fate of destruction!]"
BOOM!
As soon as Ian spoke the magical words, the power of destruction responded to his will and surged.
Winds howled, the earth shook, and lightning flashed across the sky.
The wizards watched Ian with tense expressions.
"[Destroy everything with hellfire!]"
[Hahaha! Good! Very good! The end of all things approaches-!]
Dizzying heat swirled around.
The mont the mystery of destruction hurled massive heat-
Ian shouted to the mystery of fire.
"[Burn!]"
Using mysteries' powers in combination wasn't difficult for Ian.
He'd been using such magic quite often until now!
But Ian's skilled combination ability left a deep impression on the other wizards.
"As expected of Eredith's disciple."
"How much practice must he have done to achieve such skill!"
Though in truth, Ian had built almost all his magic skills through actual combat.
But the wizards who didn't know how much Ian had traveled around the Empire thought he'd just practiced incredibly hard to gain his abilities.
Indeed, he must be Eredith's disciple! The wizards nodded.
Separate from their evaluation of Ian, the newly demonstrated magic was also excellent.
The flas exploded up and instantly devoured the village.
It was impressive how though they were clearly flas, they showed no interest in burning natural trees, selectively burning only things touched by human hands.
Magic specialized purely in destroying humans.
Damnation magic.
As new, effective, and incredibly dangerous magic, opinions were divided among the wizards.
Those who thought it was excellent magic but too dangerous.
And those who thought since fire magic was used for destruction anyway, it made no difference.
And amid the heated discussion, one man burst into loud laughter.
It was Professor Demonite.
"Truly- truly-! Perfect magic!"
"..."
"That fateful destruction reminiscent of the [Black Great Fire]! The ability to control destructive power and convert it to magic! Ah-!"
Demonite stared straight at Ian and shouted:
"You are truly a genius! Excellent! Ian! Truly-! Excellent!"
"..."
Honestly, Ian couldn't relate to Demonite's extre praise.
Hmm. Is it really that level?
Sure it was an enhanced fire magic... but honestly not sothing level wizards could replicate.
Even among skilled fire wizards, only those confident in controlling the mystery of destruction could use this magic.
Even Ian himself felt it.
This Damnation magic was extrely dangerous.
Dangerous if successful, dangerous if it failed.
'But it is powerful.'
If Demonite was a firepower enthusiast, his joy made sense.
"Indeed, you're fascinating. The magical structure-"
"Let's discuss that later."
The magic had worked perfectly.
Having confird this fact, Eredith smiled with what seed like a sigh.
'Ian's talent is real.'
Unlike his dislike of studying texts, his ability to use and apply magic was beyond even Eredith's grasp.
Several thoughts crossed Eredith's mind as she watched Ian.
While it felt lucky that she could take Ian as her disciple-
At the sa ti, how Ian would grow and what kind of wizard he would beco.
Eredith felt incredibly excited and.
-also incredibly afraid.
"As expected of Eredith! Excellently modified fire magic!"
"Well done Professor Ian! Let's go have celebratory drinks!"
Ian returned to the university with the wizards.
Though he laughed and chatted excitedly with the other wizards.
Ian's mood hadn't really lifted.
The reason was, naturally, that strange dream he'd had while unconscious.
'What was that?'
While others were like 'Woohoo! What an amazing idea! How did you think of it?'
Ian's feeling was more like 'I don't know either~! I'm scared~!'
"So that's why you skipped my class?"
Before Ian sat Maria in her modified nun's habit.
Her face resting on her hands looked so cute-
"Hehehe..."
-or not.
Ian felt his hair stand on end when Maria laughed softly.
She was still a girl who gave off seriously creepy vibes.
Like, if Lucy struck that pose, she'd look like an elentary schooler who'd learned new dance moves in class.
Why did Maria look more like a succubus-vampire hybrid?
Even her nun's habit looked like she'd drowned its original owner and stolen it...
"I was going to talk to other wizards about that 'dream'."
Ian hadn't explained in detail how he developed the [Damnation] magic.
He just... didn't want to.
"...It felt ominous sohow."
"I understand. You must be worried about the black wizards."
Ian couldn't quite grasp exactly what phenonon he'd experienced.
But it didn't matter.
He was a wizard, and exploring unknown knowledge was what wizards did!
"Here's today's textbook."
Ian showed Maria the book he'd prepared.
He really hadn't wanted to show it, but it was an unavoidable choice for the experint.
"Oh my."
Maria covered her mouth in slight shock.
For good reason...
The cover of Ian's prepared [textbook] was remarkable in many ways.
It was a picture of an incredibly beautiful woman, but she was naked.
Where did he find such a nice... no, such an obscene picture book?
"This is a sacred picture book passed down in the north... not so super perverted manga."
"What fascinating cover art. Ian, have you looked at the contents?"
"...I have. Maria, the contents are too mature for you..."
Maria tried to peek at the cover.
Ian fiercely defended the perverted manga!
"Th-this book is cursed! Won who look at it die!"
"Oh my. How disappointing. Really."
When Maria gave up so easily, Ian let out a sigh of relief.
This wasn't ti to be casually sharing manga!
Ian quickly brought up the main point before Maria could act up.
"The northern goddess Hrundal left the power to capture souls in this book."
"Souls... so it's related to necromancy."
Maria imdiately understood Ian's intention.
Ian's hypothesis was this:
"I've visited Hrundal's soul world before. And that world... was created based on the contents of this book."
It was possible because it was a world made by a goddess.
Normally, souls couldn't create their own worlds.
They might be able to recreate worlds they experienced in life, but.
"In other words, I visited the mory world of so soul remaining in the fire magic book."
"Hmm..."
"Then I got too imrsed in that world... and Maria, you guided my soul back to my body."
That was Ian's hypothesis.
The hypothesis could be proven through experint.
"So. We're going to do the sa experint again."
"I understand. You want to watch over you using necromancy, like before."
"Yes. I want you to make sure I don't get lost like last ti."
"Hehe. I'll help gladly."
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