Chapter 8 – Signature Phantasm
“One of the elemental magics left by Melina Hammelon, known as the mother of spirit magic. Chapter ‘Spring.’ No.27. ‘The Sun of the Dawn.’”
The professor gasped at the sight of my signature.
My magic had just left my hands.
“There are no unnecessary elements involved, making it extremely versatile for uses from minor to mass destruction. If you can use spirit magic, it’s a magic worth contemplating as a signature phantasm. After all, even Melina, who created the magic, used this as her signature.”
The power of the spirit was confidently added to the heat, greater than a rock, but the problem was that it could not compare to the size of the monster.
From the monster’s neck stretched out a grotesque hand clutching a fireball, with only a faint smell of burning meat and minor burns inflicted.
The professor glanced at it and asked,
“Can you run if I let you down?”
“I… my legs are giving out…”
“Then I’ll keep carrying you and continue to explain through narration! Hold on tight!”
With the professor’s yelling, the monster roared.
Perhaps in response to my fireball, it hurled a large mass, scratching the cliffside.
Despite the sweeping and destructive shock, the professor remained unfazed.
“You cast the spell cleanly. You’ve mastered spirit magic even though you didn’t have much information. Or did someone else teach you? You’re quite remarkable…whoever it is!”
“That’s…”
“But it seems you haven’t used it often. Didn’t you get many opportunities to use it while in the Hero’s Party?”
At the professor’s question, my words were choked off.
In the Hero’s Party, my role was to identify the monster by smell and sound.
Even that function was lost, Rebecca would often use me as bait in the middle of the snowy fields to lure the monster.
I didn’t have many opportunities to use magic. Embarrassed to answer, I shut my mouth, to which the professor continued.
“The construction of essential fields. Adjustment of magic array. Setting up an auxiliary field. The mathematical computation of structure. Up to this is casting. The spirit screen is the purification of magic along with self-hypnosis. You already knew this. Spirit magic, which requires reactivity to spirits, does differ from other magics in the detailed usage of fields, but the basic structure is the same.”
The monster rapidly raised its speed, giving off a vibration, pouncing like a spring. It seemed to be ready to swallow me whole.
The professor, circling me, changed direction.
Swinging the wooden hammer in his left hand, he ran again with a resounding impact behind him. The monster, unaffected by the blow, instantly pursued.
“Some wizards believe they have to rely on their senses to build the spirit magic field. I know that most existing spirit magics are made by ‘geniuses’ with outstanding spirit responses. I understand being fascinated by genius that seems to coincidentally mesh with fields, but personally, it’s not the direction I want my students to go.”
“Pardon?”
“The distinction between a genius and a novice in magic lies in the ‘understanding’ of it.”
“…………”
“Magic is a discipline that reproduces the language of god in mortal terms. There are established rules, but at the same time, there are none that can be definitively defined. Yet, if you ask whether it’s the fruit of chance, it’s not exactly that, either.”
“…………”
“It may seem like an ever-advancing discipline, but if you place a textbook from a thousand years ago next to the one students use today, they’re virtually the same – that’s the essence of the study of magic. So rigidly conservative yet so bizarrely irregular – it’s an unmatched and dualistic study, that’s magic. From that perspective, your magic is extraordinarily textbook.”
“… So, you’re saying my magic is wrong?”
“Your textbook-style magic is wrong? Nonsense. The textbook is god, and regression is invincible. The optimal formula, derived after countless observations by the wizards of the past. Oppose it all your life if you want.”
“Then what you’re saying is…”
“That’s right, the textbook features an optimized formula. Consider the optimized formula you cast as a recipe created in the process of producing the most efficient result relative to the magic power employed.”
“… I read that you should avoid touching the optimized formula.”
“In terms of the efficiency of magical power, the complexity of auxiliary arrangements, the clarity of structural formulas, the length of the casting process, let alone the duration of the spell. Taken all into account to create the most ideal method, that’s precisely the optimized formula described in the textbook. Be sure to remember, however, that while the optimized formula indeed represents the best solution currently available, it isn’t an absolute answer.”
“……….”
“Let’s say, for instance, you’re making an apple pie. If you’re baking it just for yourself, following the exact measurements from a famous recipe would be optimal. But what if you unavoidably had to cater to a large crowd? Would you repeat the same recipe hundreds of times and serve each portion individually, like before?”
“Magic differs from cooking. … It is not possible to instantly calculate all possibilities.”
“If all variables could be reflexively adjusted depending on the situation, then as you stated, that would be the domain of a genius. … But I distinctly told you to present your signature.”
At that moment, the professor came to a stop.
“A ‘signature phantasm’ is the spell a magician is most confident with. However, engraving a standard margin onto an object or body, allowing it to cast exactly as the process is, is merely a ‘reproduction’ of a favorite spell and comes close to academic laziness. It’s embarrassing to even mention it as a confident spell.”
The speed that had been maintained up until that point slowed down, raising ash from under the floorboards.
The second I put down the book I had been reading in reverse, the strength drained from my legs and I slumped to the floor, my wrist tugged by the professor.
“You should be able to handle your own signature phantasm as if it’s your own limb. Even if everything else falls behind, this one spell should never be surpassed by anyone else, with absolute confidence and,
An overwhelming emblem.
Such a signature.”
The moment the monster opened its mouth wide and charged,
“『Let the flames that swallowed the disaster, at the small spirit’s gesture, burn everything to ashes (全燒)』”
With his hand, it reached out, first, a wave occurred.
A spark like dust. Those small sparks gradually rise.
Ignition.
It was closer to a conflagration than a mere blaze.
Blue flames split into thousands of strands.
Like a swarm of vipers, they encompass and surge over the cliffs, swallowing everything in sight and soon begin to melt it.
Just as the distorted firepower reached its peak and tried to swallow the monster, touching the distant sky,
There was a heap of ashes scattering in a moment as if the burning heat had been a lie.
As if they’ve canceled the magic at will.
Only the remains of the magic passing over remains in sharp spurt.
“Try and follow. I’ll help with trivial parts like adjusting the boundary or ritual.”
…Follow how?
When I, standing afar, don’t give any response, the professor abruptly leaps high with my shoulders and knees in his arms.
Startled by the professor’s sudden act of leaping back towards the monster’s mouth, I was dumbstruck.
“Take it easy. Either fall with this and take a look at the tentacles and stomach, or burn it beforehand. Don’t worry, I’ll be with you wherever.”
The monster’s mouth is getting closer. Something strange is visible. Closer still. Oh no, I don’t like this.
“Increase the diameter by half based on the optimal regression. The assistant array uses Carlos’ asymmetric magic inversion arrangement, which is easy to change. The structural formula is… it’s complicated, I’ll tell you later. I will cut off the magic, let’s pour everything we have.”
As soon as the words ended, the boundary was constructed on its own. It must be the professor’s skill. All I could do was to heap my confused magic on it.
The essential array, auxiliary array, and even the structural formula. The casting I’ve only observed is done in an instant.
I pour magic, over and over, to prevent a disaster from a possible gap that might cause the boundary to break,
At the moment when I needed a shield,
Even as I shrank at the wriggling monster’s tongue, suddenly I felt a warm body temperature over my shoulder and it felt as if my heart was sinking tiredly.
The feeling is not new.
The act of spewing a shield with my mouth wide open was almost instinctual.
“””Swallow the flame,””
“”With the gesture of a tiny spirit,””
“”Burn everything down to the dust!””