Among the spell description was an old letter. From the words, the writer was someone who has longed passed away, for perhaps as long as even before the magic era four centuries ago.
'This is crazy, ' that single thought kept repeating over and over in my head the more I read from the letter.
Principalities... Laws... What was it with all of this info dump?
The worst part was, the letter wasn't detailed enough about these factors, and were, in some manner, mentioned in passing.
That was because the subject matter of the letter was passing on a so called 'Will' or the 'Inheritance' of the writer to whoever that was reading this, in this case, me.
'No, no, no.' shaking my head, I shifted those thoughts to the back of my mind and decided to focus on the Inheritance for the meantime. Regardless of how much i had learned, I still knew too little about this world, and yet, it seemed like I was going to casually learn an enigmatic secret, the natives of this world themselves aren't aware of.
"<...to manipulate the *Principality* of Magic, there exist a mystical power which i have dubbed Magic power or Mana for the sake of convenience. Magic power grants the user to infinite capabilities beyond measure and imagination...I spent years studying this mystical power for a future when the rest of the world will come to wield the Principality of Magic, and have recorded my trials and theories for the future generation elsewhere for my passing. And to interact with the other *Laws* this power was necessary.
The [Mental Sphere] spell grants the user dense mental capabilities and power to directly interact with the fabric of reality and the material world in the form of...magic brainwaves, perhaps?
The spell involves creating a sphere of Mana in the brain with a long and periodic cycle expansion and contraction. But bear in mind this technique poses incredible danger and risk to the host. For one, it is simply abominable to store raw Magic power inside a human brain, and it goes without saying, this impossible act judges an instant death on whoever that tries to...>"
Gulping down, I turned to the next page.
""
***
The writer moved on and continued to recount his treacherous experiences during his lifetime. As one of the only people at that time, who could interact with the *Laws* of the World, and over so many tests and failures, he uncovered a way to forcefully make others who he deemed worthy by himself, to become aware of Magic and Mana.
Those unfortunate people became the fodder for his following experiments and inhumane researches.
The 'Tyrannical King' as his subjects deemed him, lost his head and sanity in his desperate obsession to relate with the *Principalities* that governed their reality. His people turned against him, and his family abandoned him. Enemies seized the opportunity to invade and bring him down, but alas, the King commanded 'strange power beyond their comprehension.
Nothing could stop him, nothing could slow him down. Nothing but himself.
During that Era, he was akin to a god
Holding Mana in the brain was a death sentence no matter who ever that tried. With nothing else to loose, the King pushed forward on his inhumane experiment and plundered his own kingdom and sacrificed his own subjects and many more, until he finally got it.
He found a way, and realized he had been going at it all wrong.
Amongst his many unhinged experiment, he came across a deciding factor that could amount to a different and more successful result than any other previous failed experiments.
Storing Mana in a human brain was simply implausible no matter how you looked at it. The brain would collapse, and the body will die. But he realized after a certain string of experiments on a different approach.
The amount of time it took for a person to collapse from brain failure varied among each other. At the same time, he understood, some could hold different capacities of Mana in their brain before passing away.
Slowly, a hypothesis brew in his dampening heart. And to justify his theory, he brought up a new string of experimental subjects. Among them were mundane noble men of different ages, slave women of similar and different ages, and veteran warriors who have seen countless battles and survive.
The mundane nobles died first in no particular other. Then the younger slave women and older slave women died erratically. Until finally, the veteran warriors.
One's Mental Fortitude determined the capacity of Mana capable of being withstood. Basically, the amount of hardship and years of age and various experiences piled on a lifetime resulted to different varying mentality and fortitude.
A strong mind and will was needed to be able to hold Mana for longer in the brain. But yet, there wasn't any human with such impeccable fortitude that could store Mana in the brain without eventually dying off.
The king instead found away to extract the Mana submerged in a strong will, and transfer it to another strong will, only to extract once more when the new host dies. Like this, he was somehow able to extract fragments of people's mental strength while at the same time the tempered Mana submerged and coalesced In each of this people's brain.
By repeating this terrible process over and over on countless victims and many other practice he hadn't accounted into details for in the letter, the King ended up creating the first Mental Mana Core made of the wills and mental fortitude of over a thousand victims and tempered to be as dense as the strongest steel or ore.
But at this point, no test subject could hold the Sphere without dying instantly. No matter if the person had such an incredible mental fortitude, they would all die, upon the surgical transplant of the artificial organ in their brain.
Skipping ahead, the King found away to get around that obstacle. He managed to prolong his human life using magic and lived for centuries, within that time, he plundered various other territories and used their subjects and resources to fuel his experiments.
He had already come this far, centuries later, perhaps billions have already died to his hands. He was determined to see it through.
Over those centuries he brought his experience and expertise in magic to new and different height. He melted the Mental Core into a rune he carved and created himself and separated the compounds that made up the Core.
The Rune was supposed to serve as a kind of training sequence to slowly temper the human mind and prepare the brain for the arrival of a Mana Core, by applying the pressure of countless other human minds on one.
Over thousands of life... thousands of human minds, would be pressed against a single one. This led to another problem. Who could withstand such mental pressure?
The pressure of a thousand men.
As a result, many others died halfway through the process of absorbing the abilities of the sphere from the rune.
Alas, with a few more adjustments and sacrifices, he successfully stabilized the effect of the rune to a more milder side effect.
Before, no matter who stared at the Rune, they would die instantly. After the adjustment, anyone with a strong will and mind would slowly be tempered and acquire the powerful capabilities mixed within, only then would they attain a Mental Core and successfully hold Mana in the brain.
Finally, the king succeeded. He grew tired of all the lives he had spilled over his dark journey and ultimately tried the final product on himself. Whatever that happened next after that, he would accept it and be satisfied.
And so, he created his own Mental Sphere and harnessed the power it offered to interact with the other *Principalities* and what he saw...was the single starting thread of reality.
The King witnessed the truth of the world, the purpose of everything; the beginning, and end. He stepped into an entirely different plane of existence, but at the cost of his sanity.
The spell wasn't complete.
His soul collapsed.
Humans were humans for a reason. We aren't allowed to interact with such unfathomable Principalities and Laws for a reason. And what happened if we finally did? We would fail to comprehend and be void.