Chapter 2 Magic
After screaming some random shit, the woman started charging me.
She didn’t make it far. Only one step and the wolf tore her upper half with his paw. After seeing so much death I was sure that I was next. After all, I should have died in the hospital.
Watching the wolf approach me I was filled with fear but I didn’t close my eyes. From my point of view I already died once.
The wolf, as he got closer he was also getting smaller, when, in a flash of light he disappeared. Instead of a gigantic wolf, there was a tiny little girl with wings of its back. It resembled a certain fairy from my childhood memories. It even had the leaf dress.
Fairy: “Who are you!? You are not Nathan!”
Nathan: “I-it talks!?”
Apparently the shock and confusion from the recent events got to me and I blacked out.
After waking up I saw that it was night out. I also noticed that I wasn’t in the same place. I quickly came to the conclusion that this was inside the forest.
Fairy: “About time you woke up, sleepy head!”
My eyes widened in surprise after seeing the fairy fly just inches in front of my face but I quickly calmed down. It seems like fainting calmed down my nerves somehow. I also was pretty sure that this was not earth.
Nathan: “H-hello!”
Fairy: “Hello hello!! I’m Milly. Who are you? You are not Nathan, right? Your spirit is totally not the same. Do you want to be my friend? How old are you?”
To- too many questions! This fairy is seriously hyperactive!
Nathan: “Wait, wait! Too many questions at once. First, my name is Ben, and I don’t know even know where I am. Last thing I remember is that I was in the hospital then I woke up in that house. Then…”
Milly: “Ooh! So you really aren’t Nathan! Ben’s a weird name! Why are you in Nathan’s body?”
She asked tilting her head to the right like it was the most innocent question.
Ben: “Body? Wait, this is not my body?”
Well, everything adds up if you put it that way but I’m still reluctant to think I switched bodies with this Nathan.
Milly: “You didn’t know? Look there.”
She pointed to her left, towards a lake. I quickly stood up and went to see my reflection.
What I saw left me speechless. In front of me stood a dark haired green eyed boy. I suddenly remember that the old man said I was 18, so he mean this boy.
Ben: “Oh…so, what happened to this Nathan? If I’m in his body, is he in mine?”
Milly: “Hmmm…”
Crossing her arms and pouting the little fairy Milly seemed to think really hard about that. It looked kinda cute.
Milly: “I think he’s dead. He was poisoned after all.”
Ben: “What? So I took over his body after he died, like a ghost? I’m kind of sorry for him.”
Milly: “Hmm, I don’t think so….Your spirit is perfect for the body. And a ghost can’t possess a corpse. And don’t worry, Nathan was a mean human.”
Ben: “What do you mean?”
Milly: “He killed my friend. That’s why I went to get revenge.”
I suddenly remember the scene of carnage.
Ben: “T-That’s right! Why did you kill all those people? Nathan is the one who killed your friend, not that nice old man!”
Before I could say more I stopped myself. It’s not such a good idea to anger a creature that can turn into a 10 meter wolf, even if she’s at most 30 cm right now.
Milly: “They were bad humans. I only wanted to make Nathan apologize to my friend. But 2 humans wanted to kill you and the old man was sick so he would have died my tomorrow anyway.”
She told me that in a way like it was inconsequential to kill someone. It may be because I came from the modern world where murder is highly frowned upon but there’s no way I could kill someone just because they would die tomorrow anyway.
We kept talking about what happened and, from her story, I found out that Nathan killed a tree, to which Milly got close. If you are wondering how she can get close to a tree, she can apparently talk to them. I also found out how she knew about me. Fairies can see someone’s spirit, or life force. Mine is blue while Nathan was orange. This is also the skill which allows her to talk with trees. She is speaking with theirs spirits.
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Ben: “Wait, is that the same as mana? The old man was talking about it earlier.”
Milly: “….HAHAHAHAHA! How can you not know what mana is?”
Ben: “Is, is that weird?”
Milly: “Yes! Mana is everything! From air to trees to flesh, it makes up everything. Spirits are what gives life to things. Like how without a spirit your body would be just a corpse, just mana.”
Ben: “Hmm, so by using this mana can everyone use magic?”
Milly: “Magic? No, it takes years of study to learn magic. You need to learn about the world and then learn the chants and then try to understand the chants so you can implement them into the world. Just by using mana you can probably just move some water or air.”
Ben: “Then you are pretty impressive, you turned into such a massive wolf back then.”
Milly: “That wasn’t magic. Magic can only control the elements of the world. What I used was my spirit. As a royal fairy I can manifest my spirit into whatever form I choose. Of course, I still need to train if I want my manifestation to be strong. What do you think, pretty impressive, right?”
Just like that the conversation spiraled towards magic. The heavy topic from before was completely forgotten. Even if I saw something like that, I barely knew those people and the prospect of magic, an impossibility on earth made me way more interested.
This little fairy was all too happy to share whatever she knew with me. From talking all night with her I found out that to influence mana one must just will it, the only condition was that your body had to have an activated mana circuit but from what she told me all humans get their mana circuit when the body reaches maturity, meaning around 18 years old. I was seriously happy when I found out I could send some ripples into the nearby lake.
Another thing about mana I found was that it could strengthen your body but Milly didn’t know how to do it.
In the morning, during our discussion, my stomach reminded me that I haven’t eaten since I came to this world. The sound seemed to seriously amuse the fairy quite a lot, but after 1 or 2 minutes of laughter she stopped and offered to get me some fruits. I, of course, agreed to her offer.
After I was left alone I kept playing with the mana. It was a seriously interesting situation. When I concentrated I could feel my environment really clear. It felt like I had a grasp on the world around me. On the spur of the moment I started thinking how far I could take this sensation. I started concentrating on the air in front of me concentrating on the oxygen part of the air. While am not one to brag about my achievements, in my quest for knowledge, I meddled most with physics and chemistry. I got a PhD in fields of study so thinking up the formation of air was something easy for me.
I was stupefied by the depth of this “connection” I had with the air in front of me. I could not only see the particles of oxygen, I could actually see the individual molecules of all the air’s components. After a bit of observation I figured out that I could control the individual molecules. This discovery was all I needed to get tons of ideas as to how I could use this “magic”.
To test it right away I concentrated on the air 2 meters in front of me, above the lake. I instantly “grabbed” air molecules and started vibrating them. Almost instantly the oxygen caught fire and I had in front of me a fist sized flame. I instinctively knew that I didn’t have to hold every molecule to hold the fire. They would continue the last given action as long as I supplied mana to it, and from Milly’s explanation, that water trick she showed me only need me to infuse a really small amount of mana once, then I would use the mana from the environment to supply it. My fire, even if it looked pretty amazing, was still only a derivation from controlling the water. I could probably hold the fire lit forever if I don’t break concentration.
This made me realize. I was actually reshaping matter. Plasma, the fire, is only heated gas. From this deduction, I could probably make whatever I wanted with this magic.
As if on que to my deduction I could feel my conscience slipping and I blacked out for the second time in the new world.