Focusing on my body and trying to feel any change, I started reciting the incantation for the light spell again, this time in a very slow speed. Not feeling anything, I kept repeating the process.
On the 20oth or so try, I finally felt something, a small stream of energy leaving my heart. Focusing on that feeling I repeated the incantation again, paying closer attention around my heart. Feeling it again, I was sure it was not my imagination and kept repeating the incantation, closely observing the flow of energy leaving my heart and trying to guide it towards my outstretched hand. A dozen or so tries later, a small bright sphere of light, not larger than a peanut, appeared in my hand. I was about to try again when Ai said:
[You finally reached a basic understanding of mana control. You should start practicing Wind Cannon before you run out of spirit.]
Nodding my head I started looking through the spell information for the Wind Cannon spell. The casting was slightly different because it required spreading my mana throughout my body and releasing it all towards the back.
Thinking about the feeling I got earlier, I started to slowly recite the Wind Cannon incantation. I could feel the mana flowing from my heart and spreading throughout my body in the same way it was described in the book. At the end of the incantation, after it was released through my back, I could feel it dissipating into the atmosphere and the spell failed. Pondering for a moment, I asked Ai.
'Ai, do you know what happened with my mana?'
[Something caused the spell to destabilize resulting in the mana to simply dissipate into the atmosphere. I don't have enough data to calculate the reason.]
'Hmm, I could feel the everything was fine as I was moving the mana inside my body. It was like the mana was obeying my will and moving the way I wanted it to, but after I used it to push my body forward, it felt like the mana itself was resisting my order. Do you have anything on silent casting? I just got an idea.'
[I'm sorry, but I don't. Silent casting is considered high level magic and most of the information is being kept secret by the academies.]
'Mhmm.. I want to try something, how is my spirit?'
[210 left.]
I nodded my head and closed my eyes again. Feeling the mana inside my heart, I started moving it slowly through my body in the same way I did while using the light spell, just skipping the incantation this time. The mana was released and formed a sphere in my hand again, just that this time it didn't shine like last time. It was just a transparent sphere hovering in my palm quietly.
'Ai, is this pure mana?'
[Affirmative.]
'Can you make a transparent projection of my body and let me observe the entire process of casting a spell?'
[Affirmative, but it's impossible for me to observe the inside of your soul closely. If you return to the real world and cast a spell I can record the entire process going on inside your avatar and let you observe it.]
'That's good enough. Send me back for a moment.'
After I returned to the real world, I moved a bit further back inside the tunnel and sat down with my eyes closed once again. I used the light spell twice, once using the incantation and once without it. After I was done, I returned to the soul space and asked Ai to replay the process for me.
A clone appeared right in front of my eyes. The clone was slightly transparent and I could clearly see the insides of it's body.
[I will replay the casting using the incantation now.]
As soon as I Ai's words ended, I noticed a small amount of mana leaving my heart before suddenly becoming brighter and exiting my body through my palm. After that, she also replayed the version without incantation. The only difference was the fact that the mana became brighter after it left the heart, what I guessed was it gaining the light attribute.
'So that's the way silent casting is done. You just need to change the affinity of the mana before making it leave the body using the same pattern in the incantation. Ai, do you have any idea how the incantation changes the affinity of the mana?'
[…]
'Hmm.. Send me back again, I want to try something else.'
Once in the real world, I asked Ai to record the process and started casting again. This time, I stopped after saying the first word of the incantation "Light". Returning to the soul space and observing my clone again, I noticed that as soon as I said the word light, the affinity changed and the mana became bright white again.
'It can't be that simple, can it?' I lifted my hand, said the first world of the incantation and tried to move the mana out of my body only to discover that it dissipated as soon as I tried to move it without continuing the incantation.
'Not that simple after all. After removing the mana for the spell from the heart, the first word of the incantation will change it's affinity while the rest will guide it outside the body. The last part should also serve the purpose of giving form to the spell. The problem is that once I start the incantation I am unable to freely control the mana and it will dissipate as soon as I try.'
Thinking up to here, I casted wind cannon again, this time letting the mana flow freely as I chanted the incantation. After the mana exited my body through the back it started actually forming the form of a cannon around me before pushing my body forward at a very high speed. After my body finally stopped flying, I sat back down and started thinking about the mana movement.
[Congratulations, Ethan.]
'Thanks' I replied absentmindedly as I kept replaying the whole thing in my mind.
'So the first time, the spell dissipated because I didn't try to create a cannon and just wanted to use it to push me forward.'
I asked Ai to show me the spell information again and started to read through it. I noticed that it indeed said that the spell will form a wind cannon that will push my body in one direction but I just failed to understand it at that moment.
'The spell failed because I imagined it wrong.. Imagined… so, is magic somehow based on my imagination? Can I succeed with the silent casting if I imagine it changing affinity right after leaving my heart?.'
Thinking up to here, I sat down and released mana from my heart before imagining it becoming light. I released it from my palm but was disappointed when I noticed that it was still a transparent mana sphere.
'I shouldn't be wrong.. Ai, do you have any idea?' I lifted my head and asked my trusted genius companion.
[I don't have enough information to reach a definitive conclusion.]
'I don't need anything definitive. Give me something to work with, anything.'
[Maybe your image was not clear enough? That is the most likely possibility.]
'Not clear enough?' I started pondering out loud 'Maybe I need to actually imagine how light is created. Ai, how good are you at science?'
[I have access to the entire Earth's database.]
'Good, show me everything you know about light.'
Rows upon rows of information appeared in my vision. Seeing the amount of information I said: "I just need help to visualize light not get a phd in physics, please remove everything that is not necessary for understanding how light is created and simplify it as much as possible.'
After simplification, there were only two pages left of text and some images from experiments. After memorizing everything, I tried the spell again without incantation.
This time, a ball of light, brighter than the one when I used the incantation appeared in my palm. I could also use my mind to move it freely around my body, not longer restricted at holding it in my palm.
"Yes. I finally did it." I exclaimed out loud in joy after letting the ball of light dissipate. "I wonder what the purpose of all those academies is when learning magic is so easy?"
[Science in this world is still at a very basic level. From my observation, silent casting means forming a mental image with a spell that matches the laws of the world. If the image does not match, the mana will dissipate and the spell will fail. The only reason you were able to do it so easy is due to the advanced knowledge coming from Earth.]
'But there are still magicians who can cast spells without chants. If the since is so far back, how do they do it then?'
[I don't know since I never had the chance to observe the process of silent casting for anyone other than you.]
'Any guesses?'
[Highest probability is observation and repetition. They observed the process of how a spell is taking form from the chant and managed to replicate it to some extent after countless tries. Understanding the process might not be a requirement and just being able to replicate it could be enough. I also noticed that the light spell you created without the incantation seems to be more stable and stronger. The summoning circle should be completed in two hours from now. You can focus on learning magic later.]
'Oh, I got a bit excited and forgot about that.'
Putting other thoughts about magic out of my mind, I tried the chant for the wind cannon spell again since I had no time to study how wind is formed right now. Seeing that I was able to cast it without problem, I practiced it a few time to get used to it and returned to the real world to prepare for my attack. The loss of spirit made me feel a little tired but it was manageable.
I walked back at the entrance of the room with the magic circle and observed any changes that took place. The men were almost all taken down from the walls and were replaced with the women from the cages. The father son duo was sitting at a table and drinking something while waiting for the circle to be completed.
The whole scene made a feeling of fury to build up inside of me. It was completely inexplicable for me how someone could betray their own race and side with the demons to commit such atrocities.
Thinking that I might be able to save some of the women, I took a deep breath to calm down and started softly chanting the incantation for Wind Cannon, aiming straight for the city lord. I figured that I must take him out first since he was the one I knew the least about. I know that I would not be able to control the direction my body will fly in after the spell will launch me so I had to be sure to aim perfectly.
As the spell took form around me, both of them could feel it and grabbed their staffs from the table, preparing to stand up, but they were still too slow. In less that a fifth of second later, the spell took form and propelled me towards the city lord, spear pointing forward, aiming for his chest.
It was a bit harsher in the real world, as I could feel my skin beginning to tear from the wind resistance, but I ignored the pain and continued flying forward at an incredible speed. Everything was blurry and I couldn't really see anything but in the blink of an eye, with a burst of pain in my arms, the image cleared and I could observe my surroundings again. As I looked in front of me, I saw the city lord dead, with his eyes still wide open and my spear plunged straight through his chest into the wall behind.
[Dodge.] I was still a bit dizzy from everything when I heard Ai's voice inside my head. Ignoring the dizziness and my numb hands, I let got of the spear and rolled to the side. A fireball hit the place where I was before shortly after, obliterating the city lord completely. I turned towards the source of the fireball and saw Zen August looking at me with blood red eyes.
"Who are you?" he asked with a hoarse voice, a sinister energy gathering up around him. I wanted to attack him as well but I still needed a few more seconds to recover feeling into my arms. I was about to answer when a feeling of uneasiness overwhelmed me.
'Ai, what's going on?' I looked around in worry, trying to find the source of this feeling.
[He is morphing into a demon. You must attack! Now!]
I wanted to ask more but I could feel the urgency in Ai's voice. Having to other choice, I started running towards Zen right away. The distance was small and I managed to reach him in an instant but since I had no weapon and my hands were numb I could only tackle him to the ground. Once we both fell down, with my body pinning him to the ground, he wrapped his hands around me and started to squeeze me hard.
Now that I was close, I could clearly see his eyes that were blood red and the horn that started sprouting from his forehead. Just as I was about to try and lift myself up, I noticed that I couldn't escape his grasp and I could feel my bones starting to crack.
[He is stronger than you and his strength is slowly increasing because of the demonification. You will not be able to overpower him.]
'I wish you would have told me that before.' As the pain was getting worse, in a slight bout of panic, I bit his neck as hard as I could. There was some resistance at first but soon my teeth started sinking inside his skin. As I was bitting deeper and deeper, a wild howl, akin of that of an enraged animal came out of his mouth and he pushed me away on his own.
After I got away, I spat the large chunk of flesh I managed to tear from his neck and stepped back.
[That is not enough to kill him and his demonification is almost over.]
Startled by Ai's words, I looked intently at him and noticed his wound was beginning to close by itself. Knowing that I had no chance once he finished his transformation, I looked around trying to find a way to kill him and soon noticed the staff he dropped when I tackled him sitting nearby. I grabbed it with my teeth as fast as I could and started focusing the rest of my mana inside. As more and more mana was being focused inside the staff, I could feel it actually starting to heat up. After I felt that all my mana was spent, I turned sideways and pointed the staff towards him as best as I could before releasing the spell form the staff.
A fireball the zise of a peanut flew out of the staff. It didn't hit Zen directly but still landed nearby, exploding in a huge sphere of flames. The fight might sound long but I only took around ten seconds from beginning to the end. After the explosion cleared out, I saw that only half of Zen's body was left, the other half being completely charred.
I sat down and l let out a sigh of relief when I heard a soft voice from the direction of Zen's body.
"Who are you?"
'Ai, how is he still alive in that condition?'
[Demons have a higher vitality than humans, but don't worry, he will die soon. Also, you leveled up.]
Nodding my head, I stood back up and walked up to Zen. His blood red eyes returned to their normal blue color and that look full of madness from earlier was gone. There was only sadness and grief left as he turned to look at me and asked me again with difficulty.
"Who are you?"
"An adventurer, the same adventurer that you guys almost killed inside the forest a few days back."
"I see." A trace of regret flashed briefly before his eyes as he continued: "I told father that we should kill you before leaving, but he said that you were just a low level adventurer and were not worth the risk of staying in the city longer. A pity."
"Are you a demon?"
"Half. My mother was one." *cough* *cough*. He started coughing out black blood and I could see he didn't have that much time left.
"You should have chosen to side with the humans and not the demons." I left this last words as I turned around from him, not wishing to speak to him for a second longer. Now that I knew he was half demon, everything clicked into place and all the slaughter done by the father son duo gained a semblance of sense.
"He he." Suddenly his voice became hoarse and he started laughing out loud: "Enjoy your short life. Even if I failed here, your race is still doomed to disappear from this world. He he."
I turned to look at Zen again and noticed that his eyes were red again. Shaking my head I walked away from his body, ignoring his crazed laughter.
"Lunatics."