I was sitting in my study late into the night, using Merlin's invention, listening to the recordings of Mikan's songs. Honestly, I was surprised by what Merlin had achieved here, and I didn't think he would develop something like this so soon. Some principles were taken from the primitive warning system we encountered before, but instead of breaking a linked CC, this time, the connection was about transmitting information and recording it. In this case, the data were the soundwaves traveling through the air. And here comes the thing that bothered me. The device recorded something that should not be possible, at least not as a sound wave.
"Do you like these songs this much?" Sasha asked, walking into my office in her nightgown and smiling at me.
"No... it is not that. I found something..." I answered, and my serious tone made her furrow her brows. "Come, let me see if you notice it!"
Inviting her close, I reached in and rearranged multiple runes within Merlin's 'toybox' formation. The music began playing again, but this time, it was slowed down considerably and sounded awful to the human ears. However, I was not here to enjoy it.
"I don't know... it is weird and distorted, Mikan's voice sounds-"
But then she stopped. Yes, that is exactly what my issue is. There is a voice within the recording that becomes apparent after you play around with it and begin distorting and twisting the base sample.
"Who is that?" she asked, leaning closer, wanting to hear it better. After another change, she could listen to the exact words I did, spoken slowly and sounding like a monster's growl.
"I will kill you all..."
"My guess? It is Mikki-2. We are hearing the old fucker's words. I don't know if Mikan also hears them or if her bracelet prevents her from perceiving Elyzien's words. But the recording picked it up, which means it is leaking out despite our preventative methods. The leakage must be minuscule, but because Elyzien is of pure magic, the CC reacts to it and records her thoughts as a voice."
"Damn..."
"Exactly. I found it out because I was fooling around with the formation, seeing if I could become a DJ and remix the songs."
"Huh?"
"I'll explain later because we have a problem right now. We need to eliminate a ticking time bomb, which in this case is Elyzien."
"Do you have any ideas? I don't want Mikan to be hurt or suffer!" She exclaimed, looking at me earnestly, almost ordering me with her eyes to do everything to save her.
"None yet. We are talking about controlling magic. She came to me before asking me to look into it, but I only ran into brick walls while trying to think up a feasible theory. I just don't know how magic works because I can't use it."
"Is it... impossible?" She asked, looking worried, getting crestfallen quickly.
"No, I wouldn't say that. With this, Merlin inadvertently proved that magic acts like a wave. The question is, do they act like waves only when we measure them or every time?"
"What do you mean?"
"Nothing. Nothing that we need to worry about. I only know some theories about an experiment in my old world that baffled people when it first came to light. It was not part of my studies. It simply reminded me of it because we know very little of magic itself. Anyway! I can start thinking about how to use the fact that magic has the same wave-like properties and how it interacts with CC, even under heavy suppression."
"So... there is hope!"
"There is, but don't tell her anything yet. For now, I didn't mention this find to nobody; let me think of it first."
"Um, don't worry! What about Merlin?"
"Not yet. He has a gazillion responsibilities already. I also need to find out how he handles it all and copy it... Little bastard! Right now, this one is way too early to throw it on him in such a premature phase! Let me work out something that has a theory behind it, something that is logically feasible before I drag him in to work on it."
"Do you think she is in danger? I mean, could Elyzien take over Mikan?"
"No, not with the bracelet on. It is still working, but as with her previous one, it will eventually fail. CC is simply crystallized magic, so it picks up on Elyzien, even in this state. For now, we will try to write a program like in my good old school days to deal with that bitch, before she somehow escapes!"
"A program?" She asked, getting curious as we did that multiple times in the beginning, coming up with formations. Sasha was adept at that field; no, she was terrific. "Wait... you said we?"
"Of course! Didn't you complain you missed work? This is the perfect opportunity!"
"Ehehe, true. Not even your mom could complain about it, as it's not like visiting the blacksmiths, standing in fire or something!"
She was completely right. In the following days, we did nothing but scour the different magical books, making and scrapping formations. We modified others and built some from the ground up before starting over. All of them stemmed from the same one Merlin made for controlling our dear Kustov as we tried to modify it.
That spell was originally designed to influence the target's thoughts. It would plant a fake idea into his subconscious, hiding it so profoundly that the conscious mind would be none the wiser about it. Because the feeling would come within himself, the victim would act upon it as if it were his own choice. It would self-strengthen itself in a way, making it a really insidious and dangerous spell. But it also made me think that we were already using waves without realizing it, but at that time, it was about brain waves.
This time, the principal notion would be the same: forcing our will onto magic, not onto a brain. We need to make it obey our decision instead of an already pre-programmed mind within it, belonging to Elyzien. This time, it was not influencing the brain to make an order but modifying an already finalized command. So, in a way, we were trying to take over an already formed spell, hijacking it. We were trying to develop a magical trojan virus. No other way around it.
We started with the assumption that Mikki-2 has complete control over Mikki-1's mana. This is evident from the fact that she managed to bring me back from near death and heal me. So, her thoughts and mastery over magic would be stronger than us. Even if we tried to wrestle control over it, it could hurt Mikan if we are too blunt with it or create a deadly backlash... This is where programming came into the picture once again.
Working on it made me remember the first year when I discovered Sasha and could test 'my' magic. It was as if we were back in time when we were still trying to understand it all. Because of this, it was her with whom I had the most synergy, speeding up our daily brainstorming while trying to come up with a solution. It was she who suggested trying something more simple first than attempting to do it all at once... and she was right. So, we went ahead and decided to use a simple fireball as the spell we were going to attempt and interfere with.
In this example, we define the energy variables and the spell's target with the runes within the formation. Based on the power parameter rune, we then characterize a function with another one that would trigger the fireball spell. This is the one that is also most often replaced by CC and, in turn, could be our attacking point. We had to develop a new 'code' from scratch, a new set of runes that would be injected into the fireball's formation. Using Merlin's latest invention, how one CC can transfer information to another, we could, in theory, inject this new set of runes into the original formation, changing its function. We just had to reverse it; instead of recording the waves, it would broadcast them.
What was challenging about it was that we had to have a complete understanding of the formation we were aiming at. Then, the code had to be compatible, meaning it would not screw up the sequence after being injected. Yes, that could be useful in war if our enemy gets a new set of runes induced into his spell, making it blow up in his face or something... but we are trying to make it so that Mikan has complete control over her ancestor and her magic. So, that outcome was unacceptable.
"Try this!" I groaned, rubbing my tired eyes, giving another piece of paper to my wife who, when touching it, with a little bit of her mana, activated it just so we could observe it burning away in a flash. "Tsk... no, it should not have been burnt at all... Another failure."
"Instead of stopping it, it accelerated its burn rate." She mumbled, looking for one of her earlier drawings, making changes while also recording our attempt.
"We should rest, I don't want to overwork you, or my Mom will kill me."
"It's fine! This is nothing, and it isn't like using magic for big spells! I just activated it, that is all. I have magic within me anyway; if it would hurt the baby, it would have happened already."
"True... so, what's next? Do you have one ready?"
"I drew up one with your trojan implemented into it with another set of modifications," she mumbled, making a few last-minute changes and quickly getting used to the lingo I was using. "If it works as we want it to, then when I activate it, it will almost catch on fire but terminate at the last moment."
"Fingers crossed!"
I watched her finish it and raise it in the air after drawing. There was no reason to hesitate, so she activated it without thinking, and I watched as the little paper began glowing immediately. It was like a leaf being held close to open fire as it started curling up, but in the end, it did not burst into flames and remained unburnt—kind of.
"Oooh! That's great!"
"It did not work; it still became charred and... weird."
"Yes, but this is the closest we got to it in the past two weeks!" I laughed, hugging her and kissing her cheek. "Which one was that? Let me copy it down, and we can continue optimizing it!"
...
....
......
It was a warm, early-summer day, and we were gathering around the usual testing site for our newest magic spells. By now, the area had been cleared of every tree, and a rudimentary wall had been set up with warning signs for everyone to stay away. There were four entrances to the location, and all of those were guarded by the young, still-in-training soldiers.
Right now, we were standing around 5 meters away from Merlin, who was holding a simple fireball spell formation—the same one Sasha and I had been working on for weeks. On our end, a different formation was etched into a wooden slab with a pair of charged CCs sitting in it. The whole thing was already activated, and what surprised Merlin was that he couldn't really tell what it was for. He wanted to study it at once because it was something he had never seen before, but I told him to first do the testing, and then we could talk.
"I'm ready!" He shouted, making me shrug, raising my voice.
"Do it! I told you, just aim towards the dummy and cast the spell!" While speaking, I was pointing towards the scarecrow, around fifty meters ahead of him.
"I'm doing it! One... Two.."
"Just do it!" Sasha moaned, reprimanding him and getting impatient because she was just as nervous as I was. When Merlin finally activated it... Nothing happened.
"What... but... Huh?"
Merlin was clearly surprised, looking at the formation... but then again, it was a simple, normal spell, something he was familiar with, as it later evolved into what we now call Dragonfire. He tried it a second time. Nothing. Third? Still nothing.
"...." Looking at us, his eyes were glowing with excitement. He was looking at the formation on our side, already putting the two together because he was sure that the fireball spell was not the issue here.
"Continue trying it!" I shouted with a wide grin and watched as, in the end, Merlin summoned his natural affinity, finally forcing the fireball to appear. Even then, it didn't fly forward or cause an explosion. Instead, it incinerated the paper in his hands, and then it was snuffed out without fighting back.
"How did you do it?!" He laughed loudly and skipped over towards us. His bright eyes were studying the little 'Trojan horse' we had developed.
"Well... Let's just say that we managed to create a method that injects a rouge rune code into the spell when activated, simply preventing it from activating. Right now, this only works with this one low-level spell, but it was to prove the idea that it can be done. Now it is time for you to come and start playing with it, my little genius..." I explained with a grin, rubbing his head. "Feel free to drop everything else and make this your priority."
I was sitting in my study late into the night, using Merlin's invention, listening to the recordings of Mikan's songs. Honestly, I was surprised by what Merlin had achieved here, and I didn't think he would develop something like this so soon. Some principles were taken from the primitive warning system we encountered before, but instead of breaking a linked CC, this time, the connection was about transmitting information and recording it. In this case, the data were the soundwaves traveling through the air. And here comes the thing that bothered me. The device recorded something that should not be possible, at least not as a sound wave.
"Do you like these songs this much?" Sasha asked, walking into my office in her nightgown and smiling at me.
"No... it is not that. I found something..." I answered, and my serious tone made her furrow her brows. "Come, let me see if you notice it!"
Inviting her close, I reached in and rearranged multiple runes within Merlin's 'toybox' formation. The music began playing again, but this time, it was slowed down considerably and sounded awful to the human ears. However, I was not here to enjoy it.
"I don't know... it is weird and distorted, Mikan's voice sounds-"
But then she stopped. Yes, that is exactly what my issue is. There is a voice within the recording that becomes apparent after you play around with it and begin distorting and twisting the base sample.
"Who is that?" she asked, leaning closer, wanting to hear it better. After another change, she could listen to the exact words I did, spoken slowly and sounding like a monster's growl.
"I will kill you all..."
"My guess? It is Mikki-2. We are hearing the old fucker's words. I don't know if Mikan also hears them or if her bracelet prevents her from perceiving Elyzien's words. But the recording picked it up, which means it is leaking out despite our preventative methods. The leakage must be minuscule, but because Elyzien is of pure magic, the CC reacts to it and records her thoughts as a voice."
"Damn..."
"Exactly. I found it out because I was fooling around with the formation, seeing if I could become a DJ and remix the songs."
"Huh?"
"I'll explain later because we have a problem right now. We need to eliminate a ticking time bomb, which in this case is Elyzien."
"Do you have any ideas? I don't want Mikan to be hurt or suffer!" She exclaimed, looking at me earnestly, almost ordering me with her eyes to do everything to save her.
"None yet. We are talking about controlling magic. She came to me before asking me to look into it, but I only ran into brick walls while trying to think up a feasible theory. I just don't know how magic works because I can't use it."
"Is it... impossible?" She asked, looking worried, getting crestfallen quickly.
"No, I wouldn't say that. With this, Merlin inadvertently proved that magic acts like a wave. The question is, do they act like waves only when we measure them or every time?"
"What do you mean?"
"Nothing. Nothing that we need to worry about. I only know some theories about an experiment in my old world that baffled people when it first came to light. It was not part of my studies. It simply reminded me of it because we know very little of magic itself. Anyway! I can start thinking about how to use the fact that magic has the same wave-like properties and how it interacts with CC, even under heavy suppression."
"So... there is hope!"
"There is, but don't tell her anything yet. For now, I didn't mention this find to nobody; let me think of it first."
"Um, don't worry! What about Merlin?"
"Not yet. He has a gazillion responsibilities already. I also need to find out how he handles it all and copy it... Little bastard! Right now, this one is way too early to throw it on him in such a premature phase! Let me work out something that has a theory behind it, something that is logically feasible before I drag him in to work on it."
"Do you think she is in danger? I mean, could Elyzien take over Mikan?"
"No, not with the bracelet on. It is still working, but as with her previous one, it will eventually fail. CC is simply crystallized magic, so it picks up on Elyzien, even in this state. For now, we will try to write a program like in my good old school days to deal with that bitch, before she somehow escapes!"
"A program?" She asked, getting curious as we did that multiple times in the beginning, coming up with formations. Sasha was adept at that field; no, she was terrific. "Wait... you said we?"
"Of course! Didn't you complain you missed work? This is the perfect opportunity!"
"Ehehe, true. Not even your mom could complain about it, as it's not like visiting the blacksmiths, standing in fire or something!"
She was completely right. In the following days, we did nothing but scour the different magical books, making and scrapping formations. We modified others and built some from the ground up before starting over. All of them stemmed from the same one Merlin made for controlling our dear Kustov as we tried to modify it.
That spell was originally designed to influence the target's thoughts. It would plant a fake idea into his subconscious, hiding it so profoundly that the conscious mind would be none the wiser about it. Because the feeling would come within himself, the victim would act upon it as if it were his own choice. It would self-strengthen itself in a way, making it a really insidious and dangerous spell. But it also made me think that we were already using waves without realizing it, but at that time, it was about brain waves.
This time, the principal notion would be the same: forcing our will onto magic, not onto a brain. We need to make it obey our decision instead of an already pre-programmed mind within it, belonging to Elyzien. This time, it was not influencing the brain to make an order but modifying an already finalized command. So, in a way, we were trying to take over an already formed spell, hijacking it. We were trying to develop a magical trojan virus. No other way around it.
We started with the assumption that Mikki-2 has complete control over Mikki-1's mana. This is evident from the fact that she managed to bring me back from near death and heal me. So, her thoughts and mastery over magic would be stronger than us. Even if we tried to wrestle control over it, it could hurt Mikan if we are too blunt with it or create a deadly backlash... This is where programming came into the picture once again.
Working on it made me remember the first year when I discovered Sasha and could test 'my' magic. It was as if we were back in time when we were still trying to understand it all. Because of this, it was her with whom I had the most synergy, speeding up our daily brainstorming while trying to come up with a solution. It was she who suggested trying something more simple first than attempting to do it all at once... and she was right. So, we went ahead and decided to use a simple fireball as the spell we were going to attempt and interfere with.
In this example, we define the energy variables and the spell's target with the runes within the formation. Based on the power parameter rune, we then characterize a function with another one that would trigger the fireball spell. This is the one that is also most often replaced by CC and, in turn, could be our attacking point. We had to develop a new 'code' from scratch, a new set of runes that would be injected into the fireball's formation. Using Merlin's latest invention, how one CC can transfer information to another, we could, in theory, inject this new set of runes into the original formation, changing its function. We just had to reverse it; instead of recording the waves, it would broadcast them.
What was challenging about it was that we had to have a complete understanding of the formation we were aiming at. Then, the code had to be compatible, meaning it would not screw up the sequence after being injected. Yes, that could be useful in war if our enemy gets a new set of runes induced into his spell, making it blow up in his face or something... but we are trying to make it so that Mikan has complete control over her ancestor and her magic. So, that outcome was unacceptable.
"Try this!" I groaned, rubbing my tired eyes, giving another piece of paper to my wife who, when touching it, with a little bit of her mana, activated it just so we could observe it burning away in a flash. "Tsk... no, it should not have been burnt at all... Another failure."
"Instead of stopping it, it accelerated its burn rate." She mumbled, looking for one of her earlier drawings, making changes while also recording our attempt.
"We should rest, I don't want to overwork you, or my Mom will kill me."
"It's fine! This is nothing, and it isn't like using magic for big spells! I just activated it, that is all. I have magic within me anyway; if it would hurt the baby, it would have happened already."
"True... so, what's next? Do you have one ready?"
"I drew up one with your trojan implemented into it with another set of modifications," she mumbled, making a few last-minute changes and quickly getting used to the lingo I was using. "If it works as we want it to, then when I activate it, it will almost catch on fire but terminate at the last moment."
"Fingers crossed!"
I watched her finish it and raise it in the air after drawing. There was no reason to hesitate, so she activated it without thinking, and I watched as the little paper began glowing immediately. It was like a leaf being held close to open fire as it started curling up, but in the end, it did not burst into flames and remained unburnt—kind of.
"Oooh! That's great!"
"It did not work; it still became charred and... weird."
"Yes, but this is the closest we got to it in the past two weeks!" I laughed, hugging her and kissing her cheek. "Which one was that? Let me copy it down, and we can continue optimizing it!"
...
....
......
It was a warm, early-summer day, and we were gathering around the usual testing site for our newest magic spells. By now, the area had been cleared of every tree, and a rudimentary wall had been set up with warning signs for everyone to stay away. There were four entrances to the location, and all of those were guarded by the young, still-in-training soldiers.
Right now, we were standing around 5 meters away from Merlin, who was holding a simple fireball spell formation—the same one Sasha and I had been working on for weeks. On our end, a different formation was etched into a wooden slab with a pair of charged CCs sitting in it. The whole thing was already activated, and what surprised Merlin was that he couldn't really tell what it was for. He wanted to study it at once because it was something he had never seen before, but I told him to first do the testing, and then we could talk.
"I'm ready!" He shouted, making me shrug, raising my voice.
"Do it! I told you, just aim towards the dummy and cast the spell!" While speaking, I was pointing towards the scarecrow, around fifty meters ahead of him.
"I'm doing it! One... Two.."
"Just do it!" Sasha moaned, reprimanding him and getting impatient because she was just as nervous as I was. When Merlin finally activated it... Nothing happened.
"What... but... Huh?"
Merlin was clearly surprised, looking at the formation... but then again, it was a simple, normal spell, something he was familiar with, as it later evolved into what we now call Dragonfire. He tried it a second time. Nothing. Third? Still nothing.
"...." Looking at us, his eyes were glowing with excitement. He was looking at the formation on our side, already putting the two together because he was sure that the fireball spell was not the issue here.
"Continue trying it!" I shouted with a wide grin and watched as, in the end, Merlin summoned his natural affinity, finally forcing the fireball to appear. Even then, it didn't fly forward or cause an explosion. Instead, it incinerated the paper in his hands, and then it was snuffed out without fighting back.
"How did you do it?!" He laughed loudly and skipped over towards us. His bright eyes were studying the little 'Trojan horse' we had developed.
"Well... Let's just say that we managed to create a method that injects a rouge rune code into the spell when activated, simply preventing it from activating. Right now, this only works with this one low-level spell, but it was to prove the idea that it can be done. Now it is time for you to come and start playing with it, my little genius..." I explained with a grin, rubbing his head. "Feel free to drop everything else and make this your priority."
