After some insistence from both parties, they decided to do what they were here to do rather than scorn each other in their usual way.
The flames within his soul calmed down the moment Constantine sat down in a lotus position to pay attention to Zebellia's words.
"Before we begin, there are several things you have to understand." The mare got in position, sitting down with her head in front of Constantine, she was so big that his body was merely the size of one of her eyes.
"First you need to understand that magic is merely an extension of divinity…" She began.
"What does that mean?"
"Simply said... in the case of elves to put an example, a God must have existed long ago with the capacity to use a divinity related to light, also having several racial traits… this divinity was passed down the line in a degraded version that lacked faith, eventually turning into 'light magic'… this is the case for all magic that exists, divinity does not need mana as divinity is produced within the God Spark while mana is merely god's faith scattered in the world."
"Got it." He said those words but still felt a little confused as concepts like those were simply foreign to him.
"Magic arrays are constructs, like having a servant and giving him an order, he'd do what you set him off to do instead of doing it yourself, am I understood?"
"Hmn…"
"In order to use magic array without divinity, you need two things, one is a catalyst, the other is a trigger. Depending on the quality of the catalyst, it can also be a trigger, for example the Blood of Sandork which you have encountered previously, the divinity contained inside it will not only work as both cases, but it is so powerful that it will also enhance the spell!"
"So that's why it is so precious…"
"Among other things, let's begin with a trigger… the way to create a trigger is to focus your magic on a single spot and condense it into a physical embodiment, usually this would be done with the usage of a single core, but since you have four, in your case it should be easier..."
"I'll try..."
"You can begin by using a simple gale spell, you have used it several times now to chart the cave's airflow, the difference is, you have done so instinctively rather than following a transcription."
He did as she asked and began using his four cores focused on wind.
Slowly but surely a green light started to appear between his palms, but no matter how much he tried, that light couldn't condense into something physical.
"You're spreading it too much, focus on a single point, imagine a dot with your gaze, and put everything in it."
No sweat ran down his forehead but the tension was palpable, when he saw a small droplet of green jade form in his hands, he slumped back tired.
"Ooofff..." Exhaling a breath he didn't know he was holding, Constantine picked the green jade that had the size of a grain of rice.
"Congratulations... you have created your first trigger, but it has no spell engraved into it, at this stage, it is more of a catalyst than anything else." Her eye focused on that drop and it floated on its own.
*WHOOSHH!!!*
The drop exploded into gales of wind that flurried his hair madly.
"I'll try again, I only have to think of the gale while creating this 'catalyst' right?"
"Indeed, when your magic is condensed into a physical form, it will always be a catalyst, only once it has something engraved in it will it turn into a trigger, think of the spell and then activate it by focusing on your energy... you created it."
"Hmn..."
It took several tries, at no moment did he become frustrated over trying to create this array, in the end, however, he did manage to create his first array a mere gale spell.
*WHOOSH!*
"Yes!" He could already think of several use cases for such a technique, most of them focused on warfare...
"Nicely done I guess... however, In your case, you want an explosive correct? I'm afraid you will have at least some basic knowledge of how an explosion works before creating it." The mare huffed a breath all over him.
"Have you heard of black powder?" He asked suddenly, but the valkyrie was clueless.
"Ah?"
"It is a combination of inflamable materials that produce gas once ignited, I know how it works, but I don't know how to translate that into magic… hmmm" For several minutes he just sat there, thinking about how to do this, but nothing came to mind, he only knew that those materials ignited once lit up on fire, but the internal process of those materials and the changes within them to create that reaction were always taken for granted.
"There is a form of fire magic to create explosions called Combustion, but I don't think you have the time to learn it and it is also not something the current you can use." Zebellia said, seeing that he had been thinking for too long.
"Can ground magic be used to create different types of minerals other than controlling soil?" The Conqueror inquired, having a brief idea of what to do if only the answer was positive.
"The boundaries of ground magic are unlimited as an original branch of creation divinity, in its maximum expression it can create anything that doesn't possess life, even an entire world… depending on what you want to create, you could even use it right now, once again, your capacity to turn the impossible into possible within your own mind is the limit."
"Hmph, there is nothing impossible for me... I want to create several elements, but… how" Initially flaunty, he soon realised that merely thinking about 'creating' a rock wouldn't be enough as not all rocks are the same, creating a black rock... how many different black rock-like minerals there were?
"Use one of the ground magic's basic attributes, transmutation, it will cost you a lot of energy but with four ether cores, you should be able to pull it off."
"It seems you're not a dumb mare after all."
*Snort!*
"Say that again and you will be sitting here on your own!" The horse threatened to go and sleep.
"Okay okay, sorry" there were many thoughts that didn't dare come forward, the temptation to tease the mare was too strong.
The temptation to tease a monster the size of a mountain, a mad lad indeed.
"Remember that everything that happens here, is not happening in reality. This is currently a ground for practicing and you have to replicate what you learned here, in the outside world..." One of her wings waved and a small vortex appeared , from there, several rocks of different sizes popped into life.
"Those are different rocks with different compositions, I'm unaware of what you desire to create, but you can try with that first… the way to use transmutation is to imagine the difference in composition of the elements you desire to change, good luck with that…" The mare smirked and lay down, as if aware that he would spend a lot of time doing so, even though she herself didn't know what he had in mind.
Her gaze merely set on him, watching his every movement as he fiddled through the rocks, what was in her mind, no one knew.
But she would be surprised as he wasted not a single second.
"This is charcoal, nice! this… I don't know what this is…" Constantine started to survey every rock that she created and even experiment with his ground magic, creating several different minerals.
Sometimes he squashed the rocks together or rubbed them.
"How can you know what they are just by glance?" She asked suddenly as he kept rubbing several minerals together with enthusiasm.
"I used them to paint, in order to produce ink you quash rocks and they produced different colours, by seeing the texture and the ink produced you can know what kind of mineral it is, by rubbing them against one another, depending on their durability, you can also classify them"
"..." She maintained her silence, obtaining his 'wisdom' until her eyebrows lifted slightly at some realisation.
"I didn't know you paint…"
"… why would you?" He turned around and gave her a weird gaze.
!!!
"N-No, someone as dumb as you doesn't look like you'd know anything remotely artistic, that's what I meant!" Huffing in disdain at his apparent lack of art insight, she decided to leave him to his own research and say no further words until he finished.
"…" He glared at the eccentric horse before getting back to his task, ignoring her and hence, missing her relieved sigh.
**
**
For several minutes he looked at those minerals and even requested her to produce more.
"I think I've got it now… can you tell me a little further about the catalyst? and what does the trigger do again...? can I create them separately and somehow merge them together, what are my limits?" He sent a flurry of questions towards the horse in question.
Having several ideas in his mind, he only needed to know if they were possible.
"The trigger is where you engrave the orders, just create the physical representation in the form of an engraved jade… as for the catalyst, it is a condensation of your magic which will trigger the spell, you're free to decide the composition of the array to your will."
"I see..."
"If you're skilled enough you will create a catalyst and a trigger in the same jade, if it is convenient for you, you can do it separately, depends on you and the effect you desire the array to have, some expert gods would create chains of effects, I have even seen arrays with hundreds of catalysts and thousands of triggers, marvellous creations, some others even created a variety of arrays and chained them through their triggers, there are no limits"
"Why would you chain several arrays together instead of doing it inwardly?"
"It is related to modularity, some gods are quite exquisite and creative when it comes to making their arrays, but you'd be surprised that with the correct arrangement of arrays, even artificial life can be created."
!!!!
The more she spoke the more curious he became about the limits of this technique.
Saying no more he went to work and instead of doing everything in one go like with the gale array, he intended to do so one by one.
Constantine first tried to create the supposed trigger, focusing on his ground magic, 'what I want you to do is…'
Slowly but surely a zircon-like shining stone began to form.
"Excellent, see, it wasn't difficult… now the catalyst, it will be slightly harder since you have to make sure it doesn't get volatile, you managed to do it before, this time however since you're using a branch of creation magic, you have to put a lot more magic in it than for that gale spell." Zebellia said her input, she didn't expect him to fail after what she has already witnessed.
"Easy…" He smirked confidently.
Placing the crystal to the side and with a lot of gallantries, he began to concentrate all of his unrestrained magic!
…
*BOOOOMMM!*
His burned body fell to the side amidst the laughter of a horse.