Chapter 620 – The State Of Mana

“Then let us start from the start. Do you know how magic is possible?” Athtar asked after a moment’s contemplation. 

“Kind of, I have this mess of an understanding.” Eldrian replied, “Somehow, our thoughts are able to guide mana. To influence it. Normally, this requires intense focus and I’ve come to dub this type of focus as Mageia. In my consciousness and in the magic abyss it even takes on a physical form. Thus I felt that it needed to have a specific classification.”

Athtar nodded, that in itself was a good enough understanding. For someone who had reached Tier 1, that is.

“I’ve also- Maybe that’s it! Somehow, I know that emotions can also influence mana, and the influence is far stronger than Mageia. However, using it is dangerous.”

“Indeed,” Athtar agreed but did not continue, waiting for Eldrian to continue.

“I’m not quite sure how it works, but it seems to be possible to use emotions as fuel. I’ve succeeded a number of times, but I’m wary of using it.”

“Oh? Care to show me what you mean?” Athtar asked, seeing Eldrian’s methods would be simply the quickest way for him to grasp what Eldrian was getting at. 

Nodding, Eldrian stood up and aimed towards the air. He had more than enough anger, however, he paused as he readied himself. He still wanted to punish himself, he didn’t want to simply let his anger and hate go.

He knew how it felt after using Incinerate, he feared the emptiness that would follow if he threw all his anger into the spell. 

‘Why? Why am I thinking like this? I need to move on, being stuck on it won’t change anything. I need to learn from it, and improve!’

Pushing his resolve and all his anger into the Incinerate, the spell grew like never before. It even rivaled the Incinerate he had used to deter the undead when he first returned.

As it flew into the air, everyone in the surroundings looked at the fireball with shock and awe. It rose in the sky like the morning sun, illuminating the entire plains as it rose higher and higher. Many of the nearby farmers were stuck in shock and fear, trembling at what this could mean. Fearing it was the signal of an enemy attack.

Athtar nodded, believing he was starting to get a good grasp of Eldrian’s abilities.  Eldrian’s talents were a Tier or two above his actual Tier, his mana network was exquisite for his Tier too. While it was still quite basic in form, it was clearly built with forethought and preparation for improvements going forward. 

However, Eldrian’s knowledge was at Tier 2 or maybe Tier 3. And his technique was completely barbaric. It was clear that he had been rushing forward, never taking the time to truly digest and master what he had learned along the way. Even his basics were terrible.

Considering however that he had had less than a year, it was still astounding and made perfect sense that this would be the case. 

‘His talents far surpasses even my own, but that rage of his is too much and I have no idea where it comes from. And the haste he is in, while it makes perfect sense; it will always be a danger. He will never be able to gain true control at this rate.’

“And what do you call this form of magic?” Athtar asked as the artificial sun started imploding, drawing in the surrounding mana and exploding with extremely destructive force. Though that force was quietly contained by Athtar to keep it from disturbing the resting dwarves and destroying the nearby fields.

The power of this spell was equal to the time Eldrian had drawn on the anger and hate of thousands of soldiers. Yet, it was contained like it was something as simple as Floga. 

“Spirit magic,” Eldrian answered, slowly lowering his arm as the emptiness he had feared started overwhelming him. Luckily, Athtar kept his mind off the emptiness, for a moment. However, the tiredness the emptiness brought was quickly slowing his mind. 

“I see, it is an interesting name. Did you use the word spirit since the power comes from your spirit?”

“Kind of? It feels like an unconscious type of magic. But less destructive and dangerous than relying on my auras, however, I am aware it is still destructive.”

“Unconcious, you say? Why?”

“Because…” Eldrian paused, he felt so since what he was doing was simply throwing his anger into the spell. He normally didn’t have much forethought, hence he felt it wasn’t a conscious act. But, using his emotions like that was most certainly a conscious action. 

“I’m mistaken. I said that because I feel that the spell lacks purpose-” Eldrian paused as Athtar interrupted. 

“Lacks purpose? How can you say that? It is a spell created with a singular purpose. I would say it is a spell with the greatest amount of purpose possible.”

“Yes, but-“

“I understand where you are coming from though. The spell lacks the step by step to reach a certain goal. Yet, you can’t say because it lacks the step by step that it lacks quality, such a belief is wholly wrong.”

“But! It doesn’t have a precise aim. It is a spell born out of anger and hate, its only purpose is destruction. It does not differentiate between friends or allies, or-” Eldrian paused as Athtar interrupted. 

“What spell does?”

Indeed, in ANW there was no such thing as friendly fire protection. Spells would hurt even the caster if used too close to them. 

Seeing Eldrian stuck in his thoughts -mulling over how such a game perception could have been in his subconscious till now, despite the fact that he always acknowledged this- Athtar decided it was time to move on to another topic.

“It is good that you are reflecting, however, let us move back to the previous topic. You said that you believed mana to be alive. That is not wrong, but it is also not right.”

“Think for a moment of your arm, it is a part of you. It in itself cannot be considered to be a living thing, but it is most certainly alive.”

Eldrian nodded, it was kind of the idea he had been getting at. That mana was part of a bigger whole. However, Athtar’s next sentence ruined that image. 

“Mana is not the same.”

“Then why mention it?!” Eldrian asked, feeling like Athtar was purposefully misleading him. 

“Because it is a simple analogy to use. Imagine again your arm, but now add that it had been severed from your body. In this case, it would slowly start dying. After some time it will even start to decay.”

“But what if we supplied it with a source of sustenance and kept it alive? Would you consider the arm to be a living thing?”

“No, of course not,” Eldrian replied and immediately made the connection that just because something was alive didn’t mean it was living. He had constantly been touching on this but failed to make the last differentiation. 

He quickly thought back to his answer on what it meant to be alive and whether mana was alive. Instead of trying to fully classify it all in one word, it might be smarted to allocate words for different states of aliveness. 

For while he believed mana was alive, he did not believe it was conscious. And as such, it was not a living entity. Contrary, while a soul might be dead, it was conscious and as such, it was living. 

‘It almost feels like I am contradicting myself, but it makes perfect sense!’ Eldrian mumbled as he waited for Athtar to continue while fighting the fatigue that was like a weight of a mountain. Pressing him to close his eyes and drift off to sleep. 

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