Shades of the New World

Chapter 186: A small detour

"How would I respond if someone ever decides to disintegrate my shadow?" 

Just because it was rare among mages, it didn't mean that there wasn't anyone else who could do the same things he did. 

'Well, I guess it will turn into a tug of war of some sorts, where I try to save my shadow while the enemy tries to destroy it somehow And I guess whoever's better at it will win' Evin thought and was reminded of a certain Dark mage that he heard from the Vulpine Mother.

'Relvek was it?' 

It was a mage whose Dark specialty was turning spells into raw mana, which was one form of dispelling a spell. What 

'But simply turning them back into mana Is a bit underwhelming isn't it?' Evin wondered. He often joked about his 'Darkness of Mysterious and Unknown Allies', but he still took the general subject pretty seriously. And he also wanted a cool feeling specialty as well

But Relvek's specialty just didn't spark that feeling of awe in Evin. But since the man became famous for it, Evin knew that its effects in practice should be pretty powerful. The Empty Knight from the Princess' time also had a similar ability, one which basically negated all immaterial Worlds. 

'Maybe it could work?' Evin thought of something.

His plan was to teach some of the World Sprites in here to eat another's spells. He didn't know if it was possible or not, but it wouldn't hurt to try it. Since his Dark specialty was this weird thing anyway, he could try to work with the cards he had on hand. 

'I'd guess it would have to happen inside my Dark Room, since they can't really function so well outside it...' Evin thought. But he didn't know if such things would be possible after they develop their souls, so that was one thing he had to look forward to.

Evin then looked around himself, wondering which of the World Sprites would be willing to eat spells.

But this was just a passing experiment at best, so Evin still had to think of something else, something more reliable.

"But isn't having a World Sprite eat the spell is basically the same as having some kind of imaginary monster eat it, like Nasst said?" Evin blurted out, thinking that maybe he should just give up and think of a goddamn imaginary beast that eats spells. 

'No mine will suck it all in from the air, like a whale or something, since that seems more efficient in general,' Evin pondered, thinking of how he should have a spell suck his Dark Room away.

'The Dark Room works like a thin veil of darkness that can absorb light very well. But since my eyes can see better in the dark, it just looks like piece of fancy paper dipped in black ink, so I don't really feel like it would be something tasty'

'Wait, maybe I should just pretend that the paint is clothing paint and my dispelling spell as some sort of bleach? This is getting dumber and dumber by the minute,' he thought but still went out of his shadow to try it out. 

He recreated a small Dark Room in front of himself and imagined the small amount of Time energy taking on the spiritual nature of a bleach. The amount of mana he used was the same as his disintegrating laser. He then willed it to destroy the black veil and expectantly looked at what was going to happen.

The effects were confusing, to say the least. Evin could see how his Dark Room became slightly dim at first, before disappearing completely. 

"What the fuck?" he blurted out and tried this method on another spell, his blue flame.

But this time, the effects weren't that great. It would probably be the same if Evin imagined a mana-consuming beast.

'Wait if imagining Time energy as bleach makes it work well against dark spells, then perhaps I should imagine it as something else for the other Worlds as well?' Evin thought and imagined Time energy as a fire extinguisher.

The effects were as he expected. Fire extinguisher Time energy was more effective against Fire.

"I hate my brain" Evin sighed dejectedly.

Evin finally understood how casting magic as a logical mage was weird as hell, when one was trying to cast something that didn't conform to the laws of physics well not that greatly, at least. One usually had to make a bunch of random logical jumps to make it work properly. It was like trying trick a child into shutting up without telling the kid to shut up.

And every mage was different so, what might work for someone else wouldn't really work for Evin. He just needed to diligently experiment until it worked. 

Evin then went on to find out what worked and what didn't for all the Worlds, but he soon met a wall. What was he going to imagine when he was trying to dispel a World of Earth spell? Was he going to imagine an earthquake? Water? Paper? No, he would imagine a drill or since that's cooler and more practical.

How was he going to deal with the World of Space? What was the weakness of a portal? 

Countless questions started to pop up in Evin's head and his will to work diligently was being chipped away. And after a certain point he realized: 

"What's the point of doing this if I can just use another magic to dispel it anyway? It's not like I can't put out a fire by getting rid of the air around it using the World of Storms. I'm sure there will be a niche use for it, but it's not like I always have to use Time energy to break down spells. I feel like I'm tunneling a bit too much here"

"You know what? Fuck it. I'll just fucking disintegrate everything in my path, even if it takes me a long time," he decided and worked on trying to make his disintegrating ray of Time energy a bit wider, so it can kill things most efficiently, even though it required a lot more mana.

He went on a big detour, but Evin wasn't that dejected. Shit happened. Life was all about wasting time and then realizing you just wasted a lot of time. And besides, it wasn't like the effort he spent was completely useless. If he ever had to dispel an enemy's Dark Room someday, he would have a surefire way to deal with it.

Some time later, Nasst came back and asked about Evin's progress. Nasst heard about it all, trying to stifle his laughter. Evin didn't mind it, as he found it amusing as well, but what came out of Nasst's mouth next made Evin want to give up.

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