Christian took a mont to ensure his Occluncy was operating at the highest level before slowly approaching the tree. At first, he felt nothing until he was about 20 ters from the tree, where he began to hear voices. At first, they were just murmurs, but he could hear them clearly when he was 15 ters from the tree.
"Co…Co to my embrace."
"Close your mind. Forget your worries, and you'll find eternal peace."
Christian stopped as he sensed he could not stop these words from entering his mind, no matter what he did. He searched his mind and realized that nothing was wrong, except for the auditory illusion. So, he gritted his teeth and continued forward.
Ten ters from his target, Christian had to stop a second ti. His superb control over his mind allowed him to realize that the voices were agitating his emotions.
'Despair,' Christian thought. 'To be precise, my sense of hopelessness has increased. If I give in to this emotion, it will beco easier for to give in and allow the tree to enslave my mind.' Christian realized he was indeed in dangerous territory. Any move forward was a significant risk. He focused his mind, trying to reinforce his defenses, but to no avail.
'No, I need a different approach.' Christian realized that forceful defense was the worst way to defend himself. He thought deeply before coming up with a solution: 'Maybe I can isolate the voice's effect to one layer of my mind and ensure the effects do not leave that area.' This approach was feasible.
He focused and took one step forward. As soon as he sensed his emotions were about to be affected, he imdiately isolated the effect to one layer of his mind. Christian ensured this layer had countless defensive layers while separating from the rest of his mind to limit its impact on his mories and emotions.
'It worked,' Christian thought, his eyes shining with the light of wisdom. He continued forward, and the closer he got to the tree, the more potent the influence on his emotions.
'No, at this rate, one layer is not enough to contain such imnse negative emotions,' Christian analyzed before creating more layers to contain the voice's effect. Then, slowly and thodically, he reached the tree's protective shield. Christian slowly raised his wand while ensuring his Occluncy still operated at a high level.
'Damn it,' Christian cursed as he stopped midway through his action. He realized casting another spell while his mind was focusing on defending this tree's mind attack was not as easy as he thought. Christian perford a brief breathing exercise to maximize his focus to the highest level.
"Incendio!"
The intense fla from the tip of his wand pierced through this magical shield before engulfing the enchanting tree. Christian heard an intense scream in his psyche that shook his Mind Palace. The pain was too intense, and he held his head in agony. His mind felt blurry, but he knew it was imperative that he did not lose consciousness.
Christian acted swiftly by diverting the effects of that scream to his second Mind Palace, which contained Jim's mories. His quick thinking saved him as the two palaces successfully bore this terrible attack. anwhile, the intense fla had occupied the tree's focus, allowing Christian ample ti to regain his bearings.
He imdiately sensed his conjured fla was slowly abating. Although he did not know this tree did it, he understood he could not allow it. So, Christian conjured oxygen to increase its concentration in the environnt. With new fuel, the fla burned even brighter.
The enchanting tree scread again, but Christian was already used to this attack, so he effortlessly blocked it. He cast the Fla-Making Charm a second ti, accelerating the tree's demise. Xin'er was correct. At the center of all the ashes, Christian saw this bright red crystal beating like a heartbeat. He conjured gloves to protect himself in case sothing was wrong with the crystal. Finally, after securing the material, Christian returned to the team, who t him halfway.
"Is there a specific way I need to preserve it?" he asked
"Just put it in water, and it will be fine," Xin'er replied, staring at the crystal. She had read about it in books and seen its picture, but this was the first ti she had personally seen such a valuable herb.
Christian followed her advice by transforming a rock into a bucket and conjuring water to put in the heart. Finally, he placed them inside his bag of holding. "Soone needs to carry my bag. I will be back in half an hour." He did not wait for the team's response as he activated the bag's Shrinking Charm to enter.
One layer of his mind contained a lot of negative emotion, and Christian needed to discard it. Otherwise, if they escape their prison, he will beco a terrible, dark wizard and affect the other layers of his mind. The process took him more than 20 minutes of ditation and intense application of Occluncy.
'Dark magic relies on negative emotion as an [Intent],' Christian thought, suddenly feeling inspired. 'It should be the sa for white magic. However, the Patronus Charm is the only spell I know to use positive energy. Could there be a technique to add positive energy as an [Intent] to every spell?'
Christian swiftly conjured a pen and paper to write Entry 35 of his journal. He nodded in satisfaction as he felt this entry. Once he was done, he left the bag.
…
Curator's room:
"Was he just inspired to create Advanced Charm Magic?" Mimir asked.
"Reality 7 might be a desert of knowledge, but that is not entirely a bad thing," Vincent responded. A lack of knowledge or challenging conditions can inspire people to innovate with what they have.
"I understand why you wanted to start gathering support for him," Mimir said as she licked her paw. Vincent smiled as he knew his actions could not escape Mimir's sight. Liu Xing and Kerma might have been exiled, but this did not change the fact that they were legendary wizards in their own right.
"So, what do you plan to do? Do you want him to continue exploring independently or give him a few books to accelerate the process?" the cat asked.
"There is no ti for him to explore alone," Vincent responded calmly.
"Maybe there is a way to have both."
"Oh?"
"Didn't he say his mother trained him? Give her the book while encouraging him to explore. When the right ti arrives, she can teach him, and the inherent ideas and concepts of the book won't shackle him."
"That's a great idea," Vincent praised.
"Of course. After all, I am Mimir, the wise cat."
Vincent shook his head with a smile before continuing to watch.
…
After leaving the bag, Christian found the team awaiting him. However, before he could utter a single word, an open iron gate more than 15 ters tall instantly captivated his mind.
"This is?" Christian asked.
"I believe this is our next destination, obviously," Lucretia answered while rolling her eyes.
"Any danger?"
"Not that we could detect."
Christian cast a few spells with similar results. "In that case, let's just enter." Everyone looked at each other before slowly entering this intimidating gate. The team found themselves in this dimly lit area, but the odd thing was that the door behind them had disappeared.
"Is this so kind of dungeon?" Lucretia asked. Everything around them felt like they were in an underground area.
"No, not a dungeon — a maze," Christian revealed, his tone slightly off. There were two things he never wanted to deal with — large forests and mazes. All these things were a nightmare to navigate by regular people, let alone soone like him.
The group looked in his direction and noticed an entrance area with walls surrounding it. Their location was slightly elevated, allowing them to see a rough outline of a maze with towering white walls.
"Is everything alright?" Xin'er asked, sensing sothing was off about him.
"No, nothing," Christian replied. He conjured a small bird and sent it flying above this maze. As expected, an unknown force sent the bird crashing down to the earth. 'I guess we can't fly over,' Christian sighed.
"Lucretia," he said, looking at this noble lady. "You continue leading in front, and I will mark the places we've passed. nes, can you also leave scent as a double insurance?"
"No problem," nes nodded. His plant magic could do sothing so basic.
"Xin'er, you know your role," Christian added. Xin'er only needed to protect herself and warned them of the things they knew nothing of. The team headed to the entrance, and Christian imdiately acted.
"Flagrate!" Christian said before using his wand to make a small [x] on the wall.
Reviews
All reviews (0)