Chapter 4409: Dualistic Nature (Part 1)
Chapter 4409: Dualistic Nature (Part 1)
"And you have proved my theory, Lith." Menadion pointed at the pristine walls of the Firing Range. "See? The tower just needs to have a clue of what it’s about to deal with to do its job."
More combined spells and broken rocks later, Lith confirmed the effects of all Dread Elements when interacting with mana. Choke gave the associated element the ability to generate multiple magnetic charges of different signs inside its target.
Different parts of the same body would move faster or slower based on the repulsive and attractive forces they experienced, making precise movements impossible.
Corruption distorted the mana with which it came in contact, having an effect akin to the Clean Slate spell for artifacts and mana poisoning for living beings. On top of that, all the Cursed Elements retained their full destructive power.
"You know, I would be proud of our success if we weren’t just following in Tezka’s footsteps." Lith said in between sipping a tonic after the final battery of tests. "He did all this with full-powered tier four dimensional magic spells and with Mirror Magic at that.
"I used tier one Dread Magic to conjure scaled-down versions of tier four spells, yet I’m already exhausted."
"Don’t be foolish, child." Baba Yaga said. "Tezka is older than history itself can remember. No one but him and maybe the World Tree knows how long the Suneater has roamed Mogar.
"He had countless millennia to master his craft in all branches of magic. If he didn’t achieve that much after working for so long on his own creation, he would be a mediocre mage.
"You, instead, are barely 21 years old and have already achieved a lot without Tezka’s immunity to Decay and innate mastery over Chaos. If that’s not praiseworthy, then we can dismiss Lochra’s legacy as ordinary."
"Thank you for your kind words, Yaga." Lith gave her a polite nod.
"Still so formal." She sighed. "Do I have to take this form to have you relax a bit?"
She shapeshifted into her Maiden form, taking a much younger appearance and becoming just a bit taller than Solus.
"No offense, but you could look like a toddler, and I wouldn’t treat you any differently. I know who you are, and treating you like a peer doesn’t come easy to me." Lith replied.
"I like this form better, though." Solus said. "Now I can look you in the eyes as I reproach you for not having a single word of praise for me."
"You are even younger than Lith is, Epphy." Baba Yaga tilted her head to the side. "Of course, your achievements are impressive, but we were talking about Dread Magic, and you didn’t contribute much since you can’t even practice it."
"Then work hard so that you can teach it to me and I can show you how it’s done." Solus chuckled.
"I’ll do my best." The Maiden replied with a silvery laugh. "Since we are at it, I want to try and use your technique to cast Dread arrays, Solus."
"Good idea, but don’t forget to input the effect you hope to obtain in the Firing Range." She replied. "Arrays don’t discriminate between friend or foe and affect everything within their boundaries. The tower is no exception."
"Good point." One of Baba Yaga’s arms became blue, while the other remained a healthy pink.
She conjured Zero energy in her elemental arm, waiting until she had completely overcome the fear of the tier one runes before accumulating more mana in her free hand.
"Any suggestions aside from the obvious?" She asked.
"Only one." Lith replied. "Dread Magic is too fast to Dominate it as usual. Whatever spell you have prepared, make it stand still in a spot so that you can weave its energy in a new form without rushing. It’s what I did."
"Thanks, but I don’t think I will." The Maiden replied. "I can take this much damage, and we can learn as much from a failed experiment as from a success."
This time, Lith left the Firing Range, giving Baba Yaga all the space she needed. Her first attempt failed miserably, the ray of Zero hitting the wall long before she could alter its rune sequence with Domination in any way.
The second went just as badly. The Maiden managed to slow down her spell, but in the limited space of the Firing Range it wasn’t enough.
On the third attempt, the beam of Zero opened into what looked like a fishing net before reaching the opposite wall from Baba Yaga and being neutralized by the Firing Range.
The fourth resulted in a net thrown in slow motion, while the fifth conjured an irregular dome of Zero that flickered for a couple of seconds before fading away.
"I’m getting the hang of this, but it’s not easy." Baba Yaga flexed her hands open and close to melt the ice coating them. "Using Domination to form an array from a moving spell is tricky.
"I have a fraction of a second to rearrange all the runes and find proper anchor points in the ground. The slightest mistake and the array forms with a wrong rune sequence and falls apart."
"That’s why I suggested you to conjure a stationary spell." Lith shrugged.
"Good for practice, but useless otherwise." The Maiden had a sphere of Zero appear in the middle of the Firing Range and then Dominated it into a perfect array. "Who in their right mind would stay near my spell?
"Anyone with half a brain would escape long before the array forms, and I would have just wasted mana to offer my enemies an opening."
"True, but at least now we can check what a Zero array does." Lith threw a pebble inside the magic circle, but nothing happened even after waiting for a few seconds. "That’s weird. Even tier one magic should have a dramatic effect on something that small."
He sent a tendril of Spirit Magic to retrieve the pebble, feeling it become sluggish as soon as it entered the array. Hoarfrost formed around the tendril and made it visible to the naked eye.
By the time the Spirit Magic picked the pebble off the floor, the tendril had become so stiff that it would have frozen solid if Lith hadn’t sent a fresh wave of mana to revitalize it.
"Interesting." As the mana started to congeal again, Lith pulled at the tendril with strength rather than will, forcing it out of the array as quickly as a whip.
Once outside, however, the mana turned invisible and intangible again.
"Zero magic can make mana solid." Solus pondered. "It’s good to expose and neutralize any cloaked spell that an enemy may use to keep us under surveillance. We could also use it to physically interact with our spells, but I don’t see the point in that."
"It would also be great to pause an experiment or a Forgemastering procedure already at an advanced stage." Baba Yaga said. "Stasis fields don’t work when the energy at play becomes volatile.
"A mage like you could use a Zero array to take a break and restore their strength with Invigoration. Someone like me, instead, could use it whenever something unexpected happens and buy enough time to study and understand the phenomenon."