While writing completely focused on his notebook, Erik occasionally took healing potions and glanced at the others before returning to his work. But as he turned to the next page, an action he had repeated at least dozens of times in that short period, Erik didn't continue writing. Instead, he let the tip of his pencil rest on the blank sheet as he began to reflect.
Although there were many things bothering him that he wanted to think about more deeply, his physical condition, mental state, and current context hadn't allowed him to—until now.
As he reached the fine-tuning of the spell he intended to use to harness the black fire, Erik inevitably had to start reflecting deeply on the basic principles of the strange phenomenon. Since he needed to adjust them to control its power. After all, he couldn't just create an explosion like usual to weaken the ring, as it would either destroy it or disrupt the formation.
The problem was that he was a bit lost on the matter. For starters, he had been honest with the others—this black fire was something he had never seen before. Yet, although it seemed at first glance to be a product of chance, somehow he was now able to reproduce it with relative ease. It was almost as if the black fire were the natural result of colliding a charged sphere of darkness, achieved through Elemental Synchronization with Tiberius, with an ordinary fireball.
Something had changed, and since his spells were the same ones he had used hundreds of thousands of times and experimented with exhaustively, the most likely explanation was that the change was in the environment. Following that line of thought, Erik had two candidates for the possible reason behind the formation of the black fire. One, the 'conditions' of the space within the ruin somehow facilitated the formation of the black fire, or two, the infamous 'aura' that Ebonique often mentioned was the culprit.
But the second candidate was shaky. Even if he assumed Ebonique was still hiding things from him or had outright lied, her surprise upon seeing the black fire seemed genuine. From what he knew of her, if the 'aura' were real and the black fire were a product of it, the dragoness would likely have mentioned it and 'casually' clarified that she could do something better without effort. That was the kind of person she was.
This left only the first candidate as the likely reason, but the problem was that this option raised more questions than answers. For starters, what exactly made the interior of the ruin different? There were many possible answers—after all, they were in a pocket dimension. If he could manipulate the laws of physics to some degree in a pocket dimension, like a storage ring, the creators of this strange place must have been capable of achieving things he couldn't even dare to imagine.
It could have been a very specific change or a combination of changes that unexpectedly created the perfect conditions for the birth of the black fire. The point was, it could be anything—so many possibilities that he could spend decades or centuries researching and still not find the specific reason behind it.
(Studying the environment is pointless… It's much more efficient to determine the minimum necessary to produce the black fire through trial and error… But that would be far too dangerous with the golems practically breathing down our necks…)
Erik let out a small sigh as he unconsciously tapped the page with his pencil, leaving several dots on it, which he noticed and led him to an idea.
(What if the environment isn't the variable, but I am…? If I think about it from that perspective, two things changed with me before the black fire appeared for the first time. I advanced to the Virtuous rank, just one step away from Peak rank, and my bio-mystic technique underwent major modifications… Could it be that something changed with my mana? Ebonique already said it was something special, so it's possible…)
After shifting his train of thought, Erik quickly organized a basic action plan in his mind. Then he looked at Ethan and Chen, who were seriously discussing formations while reviewing the basic inventory Zoe had given them, before speaking in a calm but firm voice.
"Ethan, Chen. I want to conduct a couple of experiments with spells, but I have a hypothesis that the golems can detect us with something similar to Mystic Awareness, so the movement of Myst might draw their attention. Do you have a way to prevent that? I absolutely need to use Mystic Confluence and Elemental Synchronization."
"If the movement isn't too significant, the current formations should be able to conceal it well enough, but to be on the safe side, we could set up some makeshift formations for a double layer of security." Chen quickly replied in a serious tone. Ethan, holding the sheets with the preliminary inventory in his hands, added gravely.
"With what we have, we should be able to create a decent enough set."
"I'll leave it to you." Erik commented calmly, to which Ethan and Chen quickly nodded before standing up to gather materials.
"You want to experiment with the black fire?" Elara, who was gathered with other mages discussing calculations, asked while looking at Erik, who nodded and explained.
"Yes, up until now I've limited myself to replicating what I did the first time to produce the black fire, but if I want to use it to weaken the ring in a controlled manner, I need to gain some control over it."
"You can't modify spells midway, can you? How are you going to do it?" Zoe, recalling Erik's explanation when they first entered the ruin, asked with slight concern. Erik began writing in his notebook as he explained.
"The key is in 'midway.' Due to my issues with converting neutral mana into elemental mana, it's really difficult for me to manipulate a spell once it's cast, so I just have to modify it beforehand. That's why I need several tests to make fine adjustments and prepare different versions of my spells."
"That's a pretty significant limitation for a mage…" Christine, not far away, commented in a soft voice that hid her emotions, making it hard to discern her true opinion.
"A little, but it's manageable once you get used to it. You just have to anticipate your opponent's reactions a bit to cast the spell. It's like playing chess, but easier since you don't have to wait for your opponent to make their move, and you can easily 'suffocate' them with spells. Besides, my Myst constructs can be controlled at will, and since they're comparable to light-based ones in both strength and versatility, I'm really not at a disadvantage."
Hearing Erik, Christine couldn't help but subtly purse her lips, earning a mocking smile from Elara, who quickly joined Erik to start helping him with the calculations for the experiments. Meanwhile, Christine dedicated herself to helping Ethan and Chen prepare the materials for the formations, while Erik began reading the notes Tomás had given him.
After a while, Ethan and Chen finally created a joint formation capable of largely concealing the movement of Myst and the consequences of the spells. However, due to the limited time, lack of space, and the already established formations, the area covered by the new formations was barely 3 square meters.
"It's a bit small, but it should do the job. Just avoid creating an explosion as big as the previous ones—the formation won't be able to handle it," Chen commented calmly in front of the formation. Erik nodded and stepped forward with Elara while saying.
"Don't worry, the idea is to identify the minimum necessary to create the black fire. If I have to create an explosion like that to use the black fire, it's better not to use it at all and look for other alternatives."
Chen quickly nodded, and the moment Elara and Erik stood in the middle of the triangular space created by several mana crystals and other materials, he performed several hand signs. Meanwhile, Ethan activated a kind of fractal triangle composed of runes floating in front of him, which ultimately caused a thick vapor to rise, forming vapor walls that shaped a triangle. At that moment, several chains made of fire surrounded the 'vapor walls.'
From outside, everyone watched Erik take a healing potion while Elara cast a healing spell with a serious expression. But due to the vapor walls, they appeared somewhat blurry and illusory, as if they were a mirage. At that moment, Chen turned to look at Ethan and nodded with a serious expression, and Ethan returned the gesture.
"Everything went well… I hope they pull it off; I'm really starting to lose hope and morale about getting out of here alive."
Ethan commented while looking at the golems slowly walking in the hallway as the runes in front of him disappeared. Chen lowered his hands, took a deep breath, then looked at Erik inside the formations and said.
"If there's anyone who can get us out of this hell, it's Erik. I've never seen someone so absurdly talented in my life. I'm sure he'll create a miracle. But even if that miracle doesn't come, I'll still fight to the end. No matter what happens, I won't go down without a fight."
"You've got guts, truly worthy of being a friend to someone like Erik." Tomás commented from afar in a calm tone. Chen nodded with a smile, then got to work with Ethan.
…
Inside the formations, Erik took a healing potion as he felt his perception of Mystic Awareness become somewhat blurry and inaccurate, though still manageable. At the same time, all sound from outside disappeared, allowing him to gauge the effectiveness of the formations. Quickly, Erik focused on mobilizing the Myst as best he could, which let him make calculations on how to conduct the next experiments. At that moment, Elara, behind Erik, spoke in a calm voice.
"I'll be taking notes on the results and healing you. So you can focus entirely on the experiments."
"Thanks."
Erik replied calmly, then sat on the ground with Kaiser and Tiberius on his shoulders. At that moment, he conjured two small sets of runes around each of his hands. Simultaneously, Tiberius began releasing a faint dark mist, and Kaiser jumped down and increased in size, ready to grab his contractor and run if anything went wrong.
The runes quickly converted Erik's pure mana into a pale orange flame in his left hand and a small sphere of darkness in his right. After a few seconds, Erik created a small Myst barrier, into which he dropped the sphere and the flame. The barrier soon closed, and inside it, a furious explosion occurred that cracked the barrier and soon caused it to collapse.
As the barrier vanished, Erik could see a couple of small black fire sparks that shimmered for a moment like dark fireflies before disappearing into nothingness. Elara quickly began taking notes on the results while Erik drank a new healing potion, after which he created two new sets of runes over his hands.
Repeating the same process, Erik dropped the flame and the sphere of darkness into the barrier, but this time he didn't use Elemental Synchronization with Tiberius. As expected, the barrier, though cracked similarly, wasn't destroyed and soon began to recover as Erik looked inside. This time, Erik couldn't see even a hint of black fire within the barrier.
After nodding, Erik repeated the process several more times, wanting to confirm the results while Elara took notes and made some calculations, obtaining exactly the same results. From what he could tell, Elemental Synchronization was indeed a fundamental part of the black fire, but at the same time, everything seemed to suggest that much more mana was needed for the black fire not to disappear almost instantly.
"Let's move to the second phase of experiments." Erik said in a focused tone after taking a healing potion and being healed by Elara, to which she quickly nodded.
With great attention to detail, Erik began using different amounts of mana, runes, magic circles, and even runic circles to collide fire and darkness while Elara wrote everything down without missing a single detail. After a while, Elara noticed large beads of sweat forming on Erik's forehead, so she quickly approached him and wiped his forehead with a small piece of cloth she pulled from the pouch at her waist while speaking.
"Let's take a break, Erik. You're not in any condition to overexert yourself."
"…Let's take a 15-minute break and then continue."
Erik said, after looking at Elara and letting out a small sigh in a calm voice. Elara quickly nodded and cast a light-based healing spell she had learned from Liliana. Though she lacked the affinity, and it cost her twice as much to cast, the effectiveness of light for healing made it worth using over anything else.
"Meditate a bit to stabilize yourself; I'll keep healing you." Elara said seriously, to which Erik nodded before closing his eyes. But just at that moment, he began to feel movement outside the formations, so he quickly opened his eyes.
Outside the barrier, Zoe and Tomás were already on guard while the mages retreated with their staves raised. At that moment, Chen extended his index finger, on which a small message made of fire formed.
{The lullaby returned.}
***
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