Quylla was the closest thing to a true mage mankind had ever reached so she shut up and listened, hoping to find a clue that could help her to Awaken safely.
“What do you mean, movement technique? Now that we know Spirit Magic, we can Warp and Fly even in the presence of elemental sealing arrays.” Friya asked.
“Indeed, but they would also expose you as Awakened. Unless you leave no witnesses, the Kingdom would consider you a threat to national security and the Council would kill you all.” Faluel replied.
“Gravity Fusion, instead, can allow you to reach amazing results that can be explained thanks to human lore and superstition. Many of you have certainly heard nonsense about becoming one with your weapon or about martial masters standing on top of a twig floating on the surface of a lake, correct?”
Everyone nodded. All the heroes of the legends were known for feats that every apprentice strived to achieve until they realized it was a fool’s errand.
“Now please look at this.” Faluel threw a handful of leaves in the air, using them as stepping stones to jump so high that she reached the ceiling of her lair. Then, she conjured a knee-deep pond of water that she crossed by wetting solely the soles of her feet.
“What the fuck?” Lith asked, taking the words off everyone’s mind.
“That, my apprentices, is another application of Gravity Fusion.” She said while sucker-shaving Lith’s beard while he was still off guard, reducing it to a stubble.
“They are impressing and you can gibberish your way out by claiming to have reached enlightenment or any of that crap since they produce no visible effect. The arrays seemingly work on you and it looks like the result of physical rather than magical training.
“Still, my advice is to use Gravity Fusion in a detectable way as little as possible to avoid unwanted attention. Unless, of course, you are mister hero here who could pull a Dragon out of his ass without anyone batting an eye.” Faluel chuckled while pointing at Lith.
“How does it work, exactly?” Nalrond asked. “I am capable of using hexa-fusion ever since I was a kid, yet it never triggered any kind of effect related to Gravity Magic, otherwise my village would have gone extinct way before Acala freed Dawn.”
“It’s easy to understand but hard to perform. At least for those like you who have yet to become Spirit Masters.” Faluel replied. “Fusion Magic consists of activating the elements that comprise your bodies in order to gain their properties.
“Even once you can use all of them at the same time, all you get are six different energies that run parallel to each other. To get Gravity Fusion, they must converge into a single balanced energy that encompasses your whole body from the innermost nerve to the shortest hair.
“Once you do that, you’ll be able to affect yourself with Gravity Magic, but beware. Too much or too little energy will harm you. On top of that, you can’t affect anyone else with it just like you can’t use Fusion Magic on others.
“Which means that the ladder of leaves trick wouldn’t work while carrying even a bag.” The Hydra said. “Start with small amounts of energy and try to mix them together. Anyone capable of using tier zero Gravity Magic understands when they are doing it right.”
While everyone else tried to create six small elemental flows of equal power and make them harmonize with each other, Quylla used her best diagnostic spells on her friends to identify the effects of Fusion magic and try to understand how to replicate them.
‘Dammit, I know how to use Gravity Magic, but only by affecting a specific area around me and by using the external elements. If only I had a clue about what kind of runes Fusion magic uses.’ She thought while using her outstanding mana perception to sense any alteration in her sisters’ bodies.
After a few minutes, both Lith and Solus stood up, managing to reach halfway through the pond that Faluel had conjured before plunging down.
“Excellent! How did you manage to accomplish it that fast?” The Hydra asked.
“It’s not a big deal.” Solus shrugged. “It’s the same thing we did to learn Spirit Magic. We are already used to create six different elemental flows and make them merge. The only issue was adapting the method to Fusion Magic.”
“Do you feel like trying with the leaves ladder?”
“No, thanks.” Lith said. “It still requires too much focus. Either I make Gravity Fusion work or I look at the damn leaves. If I try doing both, I would fall on my ass.”
While Solus challenged the pond again, Lith emitted a spark of life force in the Gravity Fusion flow, turning it into Spirit Fusion.
“I did it, Solus!” He yelled. “Spirit Fusion does exist!”
“No duh. So what?” Faluel said with a scoff.
“What do you mean? Isn’t it amazing?”
“Amazing how? Spirit Fusion can’t hurt you and you can’t project it outside your body, otherwise it’s just Spirit Magic.” She replied.
“I can use it to cast Dimensional Magic-”
“And do what? Warp your blood and organs away? Can you even survive without them?” Faluel cut him short, destroying with few words all his dreams for power.
“I’ll say this again, you can’t project them on the outside and you’re not the only creature on Mogar capable of using Origin Flames. Besides, all Awakened know Spirit Magic and can circulate it without your convoluted method.”
“And no one has ever found a way to use it?” Lith asked.
“No, because Fusion Magic is just the opposite of Spirit Magic. While mana contains the six elements plus your life force, Fusion Magic is the ability to split mana into the single elements so that it is energy cheap and easy to use.” She replied.
“That’s why all the progress I did as a child applied to all elements.” Lith blurted out in surprise. “It was because Spirit Magic holds all of their runes so practicing it is akin to practice all of them.”
At those words, something clicked in Quylla’s brain. While Lith and Solus tried to cross the pond and the others tried to obtain Gravity Fusion, Quylla used her wand to draw a single strand of mana from her core.
She moved it through her body until it reached her hand, cutting the link with the wand before it reached the outside. At the same time, she used what she had learned about Spirit Magic to enhance the fire aspect in the mana strand.
‘Worst case scenario, I’m just wasting time and mana since my own magic can’t hurt me. Best case scenario, I can finally get a grip on fusion magic.’ She thought.
The time before the mana strand reached the wand was shorter than the blink of an eye, yet she had to both cut the link and enhance an elemental aspect before it happened. On top of that, Spirit Magic consumed a lot of mana, forcing Quylla to ask Faluel for Invigoration before the one-hour mark.
Soon, Lith and Solus had already managed to cross the pond ten times out of ten and were trying the leaves ladder trick while the others had started to grasp the correct technique to conjure Gravity Fusion.
