While writing completely focused on his notebook, Erik occasionally took healing potions and glanced at the others before returning to his work. But as he turned to the next page, an action he had repeated at least dozens of tis in that short period, Erik didn't continue writing. Instead, he let the tip of his pencil rest on the blank sheet as he began to reflect.
Although there were many things bothering him that he wanted to think about more deeply, his physical condition, ntal state, and current context hadn't allowed him to—until now.
As he reached the fine-tuning of the spell he intended to use to harness the black fire, Erik inevitably had to start reflecting deeply on the basic principles of the strange phenonon. Since he needed to adjust them to control its power. After all, he couldn't just create an explosion like usual to weaken the ring, as it would either destroy it or disrupt the formation.
The problem was that he was a bit lost on the matter. For starters, he had been honest with the others—this black fire was sothing he had never seen before. Yet, although it seed at first glance to be a product of chance, sohow he was now able to reproduce it with relative ease. It was almost as if the black fire were the natural result of colliding a charged sphere of darkness, achieved through Elental Synchronization with Tiberius, with an ordinary fireball.
Sothing had changed, and since his spells were the sa ones he had used hundreds of thousands of tis and experinted with exhaustively, the most likely explanation was that the change was in the environnt. Following that line of thought, Erik had two candidates for the possible reason behind the formation of the black fire. One, the 'conditions' of the space within the ruin sohow facilitated the formation of the black fire, or two, the infamous 'aura' that Ebonique often ntioned was the culprit.
But the second candidate was shaky. Even if he assud Ebonique was still hiding things from him or had outright lied, her surprise upon seeing the black fire seed genuine. From what he knew of her, if the 'aura' were real and the black fire were a product of it, the dragoness would likely have ntioned it and 'casually' clarified that she could do sothing better without effort. That was the kind of person she was.
This left only the first candidate as the likely reason, but the problem was that this option raised more questions than answers. For starters, what exactly made the interior of the ruin different? There were many possible answers—after all, they were in a pocket dinsion. If he could manipulate the laws of physics to so degree in a pocket dinsion, like a storage ring, the creators of this strange place must have been capable of achieving things he couldn't even dare to imagine.
It could have been a very specific change or a combination of changes that unexpectedly created the perfect conditions for the birth of the black fire. The point was, it could be anything—so many possibilities that he could spend decades or centuries researching and still not find the specific reason behind it.
(Studying the environnt is pointless… It's much more efficient to determine the minimum necessary to produce the black fire through trial and error… But that would be far too dangerous with the golems practically breathing down our necks…)
Erik let out a small sigh as he unconsciously tapped the page with his pencil, leaving several dots on it, which he noticed and led him to an idea.
(What if the environnt isn't the variable, but I am…? If I think about it from that perspective, two things changed with before the black fire appeared for the first ti. I advanced to the Virtuous rank, just one step away from Peak rank, and my bio-mystic technique underwent major modifications… Could it be that sothing changed with my mana? Ebonique already said it was sothing special, so it's possible…)
After shifting his train of thought, Erik quickly organized a basic action plan in his mind. Then he looked at Ethan and Chen, who were seriously discussing formations while reviewing the basic inventory Zoe had given them, before speaking in a calm but firm voice.
"Ethan, Chen. I want to conduct a couple of experints with spells, but I have a hypothesis that the golems can detect us with sothing similar to Mystic Awareness, so the movent of Myst might draw their attention. Do you have a way to prevent that? I absolutely need to use Mystic Confluence and Elental Synchronization."
"If the movent isn't too significant, the current formations should be able to conceal it well enough, but to be on the safe side, we could set up so makeshift formations for a double layer of security." Chen quickly replied in a serious tone. Ethan, holding the sheets with the preliminary inventory in his hands, added gravely.
"With what we have, we should be able to create a decent enough set."
"I'll leave it to you." Erik comnted calmly, to which Ethan and Chen quickly nodded before standing up to gather materials.
"You want to experint with the black fire?" Elara, who was gathered with other mages discussing calculations, asked while looking at Erik, who nodded and explained.
"Yes, up until now I've limited myself to replicating what I did the first ti to produce the black fire, but if I want to use it to weaken the ring in a controlled manner, I need to gain so control over it."
"You can't modify spells midway, can you? How are you going to do it?" Zoe, recalling Erik's explanation when they first entered the ruin, asked with slight concern. Erik began writing in his notebook as he explained.
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"The key is in 'midway.' Due to my issues with converting neutral mana into elental mana, it's really difficult for to manipulate a spell once it's cast, so I just have to modify it beforehand. That's why I need several tests to make fine adjustnts and prepare different versions of my spells."
"That's a pretty significant limitation for a mage…" Christine, not far away, comnted in a soft voice that hid her emotions, making it hard to discern her true opinion.
"A little, but it's manageable once you get used to it. You just have to anticipate your opponent's reactions a bit to cast the spell. It's like playing chess, but easier since you don't have to wait for your opponent to make their move, and you can easily 'suffocate' them with spells. Besides, my Myst constructs can be controlled at will, and since they're comparable to light-based ones in both strength and versatility, I'm really not at a disadvantage."
Hearing Erik, Christine couldn't help but subtly purse her lips, earning a mocking smile from Elara, who quickly joined Erik to start helping him with the calculations for the experints. anwhile, Christine dedicated herself to helping Ethan and Chen prepare the materials for the formations, while Erik began reading the notes Tomás had given him.
After a while, Ethan and Chen finally created a joint formation capable of largely concealing the movent of Myst and the consequences of the spells. However, due to the limited ti, lack of space, and the already established formations, the area covered by the new formations was barely 3 square ters.
"It's a bit small, but it should do the job. Just avoid creating an explosion as big as the previous ones—the formation won't be able to handle it," Chen comnted calmly in front of the formation. Erik nodded and stepped forward with Elara while saying.
"Don't worry, the idea is to identify the minimum necessary to create the black fire. If I have to create an explosion like that to use the black fire, it's better not to use it at all and look for other alternatives."
Chen quickly nodded, and the mont Elara and Erik stood in the middle of the triangular space created by several mana crystals and other materials, he perford several hand signs. anwhile, Ethan activated a kind of fractal triangle composed of runes floating in front of him, which ultimately caused a thick vapor to rise, forming vapor walls that shaped a triangle. At that mont, several chains made of fire surrounded the 'vapor walls.'
From outside, everyone watched Erik take a healing potion while Elara cast a healing spell with a serious expression. But due to the vapor walls, they appeared sowhat blurry and illusory, as if they were a mirage. At that mont, Chen turned to look at Ethan and nodded with a serious expression, and Ethan returned the gesture.
"Everything went well… I hope they pull it off; I'm really starting to lose hope and morale about getting out of here alive."
Ethan comnted while looking at the golems slowly walking in the hallway as the runes in front of him disappeared. Chen lowered his hands, took a deep breath, then looked at Erik inside the formations and said.
"If there's anyone who can get us out of this hell, it's Erik. I've never seen soone so absurdly talented in my life. I'm sure he'll create a miracle. But even if that miracle doesn't co, I'll still fight to the end. No matter what happens, I won't go down without a fight."
"You've got guts, truly worthy of being a friend to soone like Erik." Tomás comnted from afar in a calm tone. Chen nodded with a smile, then got to work with Ethan.
…
Inside the formations, Erik took a healing potion as he felt his perception of Mystic Awareness beco sowhat blurry and inaccurate, though still manageable. At the sa ti, all sound from outside disappeared, allowing him to gauge the effectiveness of the formations. Quickly, Erik focused on mobilizing the Myst as best he could, which let him make calculations on how to conduct the next experints. At that mont, Elara, behind Erik, spoke in a calm voice.
"I'll be taking notes on the results and healing you. So you can focus entirely on the experints."
"Thanks."
Erik replied calmly, then sat on the ground with Kaiser and Tiberius on his shoulders. At that mont, he conjured two small sets of runes around each of his hands. Simultaneously, Tiberius began releasing a faint dark mist, and Kaiser jumped down and increased in size, ready to grab his contractor and run if anything went wrong.
The runes quickly converted Erik's pure mana into a pale orange fla in his left hand and a small sphere of darkness in his right. After a few seconds, Erik created a small Myst barrier, into which he dropped the sphere and the fla. The barrier soon closed, and inside it, a furious explosion occurred that cracked the barrier and soon caused it to collapse.
As the barrier vanished, Erik could see a couple of small black fire sparks that shimred for a mont like dark fireflies before disappearing into nothingness. Elara quickly began taking notes on the results while Erik drank a new healing potion, after which he created two new sets of runes over his hands.
Repeating the sa process, Erik dropped the fla and the sphere of darkness into the barrier, but this ti he didn't use Elental Synchronization with Tiberius. As expected, the barrier, though cracked similarly, wasn't destroyed and soon began to recover as Erik looked inside. This ti, Erik couldn't see even a hint of black fire within the barrier.
After nodding, Erik repeated the process several more tis, wanting to confirm the results while Elara took notes and made so calculations, obtaining exactly the sa results. From what he could tell, Elental Synchronization was indeed a fundantal part of the black fire, but at the sa ti, everything seed to suggest that much more mana was needed for the black fire not to disappear almost instantly.
"Let's move to the second phase of experints." Erik said in a focused tone after taking a healing potion and being healed by Elara, to which she quickly nodded.
With great attention to detail, Erik began using different amounts of mana, runes, magic circles, and even runic circles to collide fire and darkness while Elara wrote everything down without missing a single detail. After a while, Elara noticed large beads of sweat forming on Erik's forehead, so she quickly approached him and wiped his forehead with a small piece of cloth she pulled from the pouch at her waist while speaking.
"Let's take a break, Erik. You're not in any condition to overexert yourself."
"…Let's take a 15-minute break and then continue."
Erik said, after looking at Elara and letting out a small sigh in a calm voice. Elara quickly nodded and cast a light-based healing spell she had learned from Liliana. Though she lacked the affinity, and it cost her twice as much to cast, the effectiveness of light for healing made it worth using over anything else.
"ditate a bit to stabilize yourself; I'll keep healing you." Elara said seriously, to which Erik nodded before closing his eyes. But just at that mont, he began to feel movent outside the formations, so he quickly opened his eyes.
Outside the barrier, Zoe and Tomás were already on guard while the mages retreated with their staves raised. At that mont, Chen extended his index finger, on which a small ssage made of fire ford.
{The lullaby returned.}
***
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