The Wielder of Death Magic

A good learning experience – her plane arrived on the 24th of March, the talk was set to happen on the 25th – the same day Dei and Sugar were to land in Rotherham. Staxius wasn’t as rude as to leave her to go empty-handed. No, on the contrary, he reviewed the papers and gave his thoughts on the matter.

Stood amidst what seemed to be a museum dedicated to magic, Eira found herself surrounded by renowned scholars of various fields. The gathering of influential minds of their century, the people who worked tirelessly to better the lives of the common folks. The researchers from Phantom were led by; Rhee the leader of GateSix, Master alchemist Flein, his granddaughter Clarise, and Eira. Rhee and Flein knew many of the other guests. The warm lighting tried to make the room feel casual, though, the faces showed distrust and unwillingness to show weakness nor reveal secrets. The Cobalt Unit was present in form of a representative; a youngling the same as Eira. She wouldn’t have mistaken the representative for another; a face on the verge of breaking into a full rant. Her peculiar way of presenting herself, characteristic matching a single girl; Anastasia Whitstar.

“Don’t,” said Rhee with grey-hair mixed with her natural color, “-that girl over there is Anastasia Whitstar, a talented foul-mouth young scholar in the field of Alchemist. I heard the Cobalt unit took a liking to her work of which was ‘spontaneous human combustion.’ She found a way to ignite the magical element of any living being without physically touching the person.”

‘Is that what she’s been doing?’ thought Eira for it hadn’t been that long. “Sure, Ma’am, I’ll do so,” the will to greet a friend turned to nothing more than a fleeting glance hoping the girl would match her sight.

“Do you know her?” inquired an observant Clarise.

“We were classmates at the Academy.”

.....

“People change,” smiled the blond prodigy, “-don’t worry about it.” As hard as Clarise tried to hide it, people’s gazes would often pierce her back, the filthy unsightly comments on her appearance made her want to puke. She knew better as to heed their short-mindedness. Still, it did affect her heart for one must remember, Clarise was still young, younger than Eira.

“Look at you trying to console me,” smiled Eira, “-I heard father has been very pleased by your work.”

“You flatter me, highness, the master is calm and composed, he gave us a place to follow the never-ending journey of learning. What about you?” her cat-like stare switched to a file, “-what’s in there?”

“Comments from father,” answered Eira proudly, “-apparently, the discovery was made by a researcher from the Cobalt Unit. It’s the reason I came, to have their pride be destroyed.”

“A-are you serious?” coughed she, “-Is this not supposed to be a gathering of minds to better our growth as a civilization?”

“Granddaughter,” whispered Flein, “-thee forget; we’re here as part of Phantom. In their eyes, we’re those who thrive in war. Look at them, their countries are dependent on us to provide weapons – we hold power unlike any other. It’s not a surprise that people know the Hero King of the Argashield Federation owns Phantom, we may say we’re neutral – however, similar to the Cobalt Unit, we’re affiliated to a kingdom. Secrets of a kingdom are secret to the population – it’s war, constant war – not bloodied but intellectual,” the speech slowed for he needed to breathe.

“And intellectual warfare is what we must win today,” interjected Rhee. “Why do you think all these people came together, it wasn’t to discuss some finding but to show the power of the Cobalt Unit. It’s a warning, a very shrewd one, but a warning to those not under their thumb, basically, us, and some other factions working towards other goals.”

“I see,” nodded both Clarise and Eira. Soon, a loud man spoke to have their attention. Massive gates to the west opened to reveal a conference room with multiple seats. One by one, it was all filled with people from all over the world. The discussion began immediately.

“Thus, I conclude, mana is energy, and energy is mana,” bowed Tyler Gad, the author of the papers and a prized member of the Cobalt Unit. Applauses rattled the room; an overwhelming amount of people were in agreement with the discovery.

“Settle everyone,” came a lady dressed in grey, “-as you’ve heard, the topic of today’s discussion has been laid bare. We, from the Cobalt Unit, think that Magiology is a field in which nothing more than nonsensical gibberish is created. We mean it in good spirit, creating a field of study, given, we know it’s now implanted in universities; can be scrutinized by the collective mind of the scholars. From what our member said, as I surmised, he refers to mana as being energy; which would completely get rid of the prospect of Magiology as it’s based on the study of mana. Instead, it should be the research of Energy, the founding principle governing our world,” smirking, the crowd felt silent, “-I’d like to have the opportunity for people to come and discuss the topic further.” An open invitation to dismantle their findings, a challenge aimed at Phantom.

“Those snobbish pieces of...” gritted Clarise softly.

“Don’t worry,” smiled Eira, “-what I hold here is a bomb.”

“I can’t wait to see what he has said on the matter,” grinned Rhee knowing the end result. Flein could but sit with arms crossed.

“Anyone?” asked the lady once more.

“I’d like to speak on behalf of Mr. Haggard, the founder of Magiology,” a simultaneous shift from the turning crowd had her smiling.

“And who are you?” asked the lady in a disrespectful manner.

“Eira Haggard,” she took a strong step forth, “-First princess of Arda.”

“Eira...” mumbled Anastasia.

“Highness, have you come to disprove our findings?” the blatant pleasure in them mocking Magiology divided the crowd.

“No, I’ve come to voice my father’s thoughts on the matter, after all, we’re all here to work at bettering our world,” the calm very diplomatic refute had the lady feel a sense of shame.

*Snap,* a light projected various illustrated diagrams made by Staxius, an addition to what Eira was to speak about. “Mr. Gad made and raised a good point; mana and energy are related. There’s no fault in discussing what has been observed – I can see why many people assume so. People without the ability to wield magic will have clouded judgment, not that it’s shameful. As a field of study, Magiology requires more than knowledge on a particular subject since it includes many other fields combined as one. I’d go as far as say, not even Alchemist – the pinnacle of what is to be a scholar, can stand to comprehend the ever-changing facets of Mana. Now, the argument can be made that Magiology is too irregular a subject to study. Wrong, utterly wrong, the observations are irregular, but the principles remain the same. Mana and Energy are different but similar just not identical. Take the basic alchemic reaction of turning water into wine or any other beverage – the theory dictates, by channeling the mana around the caster, it would provide enough energy to have matter reshaped into another. It’s the first thing taught in Alchemy, and I think, Mr. Gad misinterpreted the sentence. The mana used by the caster isn’t energy, but his lifeforce itself. The latter is not involved in the reaction, rather, it’s used as a catalyst to start the reaction; the mana from the atmosphere is then attracted to the object given what affinity the caster chooses. Where does energy come into play? Well, Mana provides the basic structure for the reaction to occur, energy is what makes it happen. That is the reason why we use transmutation circles. It’s not to transform the object, no, but to transform the mana from the user into energy. The spark that comes from a finished reaction is the Point of Fusion. To elaborate further, there are three principles, Mana from the user, mana from the atmosphere, and energy. The reaction is as follows; Caster uses mana to attract similar affinity from the surrounding. Then, using the transmutation circle, he uses his mana to convert the latter into energy which is then used to power the mana from the surrounding. For the sake of clarity, the process has been kept as simple as I could. The subject is far more complicated – we know of it in practice but not in theory. Similar to a child knowing that striking a match makes fire, he doesn’t understand the basics and theory behind why it works – the same is applied here. Magiology is a field that takes into account Mana into Magic, Technology, and Science. In conclusion, Energy and Mana aren’t the same, not in the least, for a man can wield mana but not energy else he would be a god,” she finished with an awe-struck crowd. What Staxius wrote, vague as it was, completely dismantled what the Cobalt Unit proposed. He instead managed to put forward the first-ever theoretical analysis of an Alchemic reaction, a process many forsook as irregular and unobservable.

“Amazing,” said a man without care for the room, the applause he gave was of utter pride and joy.

“Mr. Haggard strikes again,” laughed a few of the elder scholars, “-that man is such a hard fellow to deal with. Too enigmatic for his own good, but I agree,” with barely any hair left, the elders could but admire and respect what was said.

“Princess of Arda,” asked another rather loudly.

“Yes, sir, how can I help?”

“Has Mr. Haggard decided on when he’ll be releasing the papers on the new findings. The theory of Alchemic; I confidently speak on behalf of all of us here, we need those papers – I can’t stress this enough, the possibilities behind those findings will push us even further as a civilization.”

“I don’t know, sir, it depends on him.”

“She was right,” laughed Clarise.

“What’s the matter with you?” asked Flein amidst the loud chatter.

“Princess Eira held a bomb, one of devastating proportion,” she pointed to the Cobalt Unit, “-look at them trying to save face. I can’t see Mr. Gad, anywhere, the shame must have been too hard to endure. Such humiliation before savants; it’s candy for the mind to relish.”