Clara Efferine's POV
It perhaps had been a stranger day than usual.
The sunlight was abundant, the God's spirits were in a good mood, and most importantly, I finally had some free time. So I figured I should continue on this project of mine to improve the magic ability of my student, Charlotte Howard.
I said improve, but really there was no need to. She was still too young for me to conduct a thorough check, but my instinct was telling me when I last healed her that her latent holy power was beyond what the Pope or any human child was capable of at her age. Which was a mere two years old. Simply terrifying. It was as if God had no other use for his power and was stuffing it all inside that little body filled with mystery.
And what a mystery she was. She had yet to learn to talk, but she showed understanding to adult talks to a surprising degree. She was an obedient child, rarely cried, and followed instructions like an actual adult. Sometimes I forgot she was still just a little blob that could neither walk nor speak. But I digressed.
I had prepared her soul prior to this using some rather expensive soul cleansing potions. One should always make sure to never use holy magic to touch an impure soul, or the repercussions on the caster was innumerable. Though I had gone the extra mile to give her the best treatment, judging from the way she looked at me, almost fearfully and contemptuously at times, I had an inkling that it had all gone too waste.
There was no need to ponder upon it further, however. What was gone was gone. If I did not start today, then the next available day would be a month from now, and any effects of the expensive soul cleansing potions would really be gone. And I simply could not wait that long.
I drew the magic circle and prepared the transmission marble beforehand. It was top grade Kraken marble, taken fresh from an adult Kraken. Its magical conductivity was off the charts, as well as its magical sensitivity. Well, nothing should happen as long as the girl had a sound mind and no external magical disturbance.
The magic worked like this: I would amplify my own holy power using a mixture of stabilizing wind-element potions and invigorating fire-element potions. Then I would transfer a portion of my inner holy power to the magic circle, where it would be further amplified by three. The marble would accumulate the magical power and transfer it to the girl's body via contact in a constant flow that had been fixed by me beforehand. Yes, everything was ready.
..Everything had gone smoothly up until now.
No alarms rung yet, but the silence still drove researchers like me mad sometimes. But I was experienced enough to not let it cloud my judgements. Things were going well. The girl was apparently in a good mental state today and was withstanding the magical influx well. It should be unbearable on her body but as expected, her cognitive abilities were quite developed for a child. I had only glanced at her, half worriedly half sternly, when she started holding on to the marble like her dear life. I was glad that she got the message, but maybe her perception of me was a bit warped...
It was close to completion. The knot in my mind was unraveling, when suddenly the door opened like an explosion next to my ear. I made sure the door was locked, with magic. How could someone just burst in? I also made sure to inform all adults in charge of my experiment today. Unless...
...it wasn't an adult at all. Of course. It was the young child of Baron Blythe. My dear nephew.
Usually I would have been fairly excited at the fact that he could break my magic barrier at such a young age, and probably unconsciously too. However, the researcher's mind was ringing alarms in my head. For every time this kid was around, my dear student was always behaving in a manner that was very unlike herself, often resulting in violence - as reported to me by the Head Maid Dana.
I had no time to ponder the reasons for her strange reactions to my nephew. Because what happened next was like the second explosion to my sanity.
There was, a tiny explosion in the middle of the magic circle. There, in the hand of the girl, were the broken pieces of the expensive Kraken marble that I had traded three months of my salary with the Pope for. I could feel my veins bursting.
And come with that, the realization of what was to come. But I was one step too late.
The magic energy that was receding into the magic circle, started running amok due to the marble exploding. The magic circle became unstable and released all the magic power that it was supposed to hold. And lying at the center of that circle, the little blob - my dear student - took the full brunt of my holy power that was fifteen times amplified. And she took it in when her body was already saturated with magic power due to the ritual.
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A small feeling of horror crept towards me. But it was hopeless. I could not jump inside the circle because I would only disrupt the magic even further. And no long-distance magic would work inside that circle that was positively overflowing with magic power.
The girl's body glowed, blindingly, impossibly. She seemed to have lost consciousness, lying deadly still yet growing bright like a fire torch. My nephew stood confusedly at the door. I was going to have a talk with him after this, if we survived this magical explosion.
There was a small bud of something on the girl's forehead. I felt my innards getting cold. It was magical petrifaction. It came after over-saturation of magical power, when the body tissues were turned into magical stones due to the overwhelming amount of magical power in the body.
Was she, beyond saving? My first disciple, to die in a case of magical petrifaction?
I had to risk it. For my student. For the compensation of my (broken) Kraken marble.
I broke my stone barriers. I came next to the boundary of the magic circle. I coated myself with an abundance of vector reversing magic and brought the girl out. It was a heavy toll on both my magical capacity and physical body. I now knew that physically interfering with a magical explosion was a bad thing, even with such an advanced magic like vector reversing.
Was this girl worth it?
I did not know yet.
Seconds left until the explosion. I could feel like it was just yesterday. There was barely a second for me to think about the consequences. With the burning baby on one hand, I tackled towards my nephew standing dumbfounded at the door.
BOOM CRASHHHH!!!
Air exploded behind my ear like thunder. The explosive waves hit my back of my torso like the hand of giant killing the ants in its way. I could hear the stone wall around me crack and crumble under the force of the explosion. Human force really was helpless against the inexplicable power of magic.
And there went my secluded room in a quiet corner of the Howard residence.
My breathing had stabilized before I knew it. The little blob that was positively glowing like a golden statue was lying by my stomach, eerily still in the sound of the ruckus made by the explosion. My nephew was lying next to her, his eyes rolled back, unconscious of the disaster he had indirectly caused.
I wonder why he had broken in at that time.
People's hurried steps were resounding in the dark hallway filled with smoke. I half wanted to teleport myself out of this predicament, but I could not, out of good conscience, run away from being the adult one here. After all, the culprits were two clueless kids...or at least, one of them was.
I could hear a sizzling sound. A disturbing sound from the past. I whipped my face towards the source. The burning baby was still steaming up by some mysterious reasons. Or not...I knew the precise reason.
She was filled up with an amount of magical energy meant to exceed her capacity...and then further stuffed by some more due to the marble breaking. Neither her physical body nor her mental power was strong enough to withstand this over-saturation of magical power yet. And I was just short of anything to relieve her of that excess power. Worse off, she was already partially magically-petrified, judging from the magical stone that was budging from her forehead.
The only thing I could do now, to prevent a second disaster (and to secure my own safety) was to put a seal on this power and pray in hope that it settled in this young child's body. And to separate her from human contact lest she had a reaction like the one with my nephew and explode again. This time from her own skin. And I would be hunted to death by the Red-eyed Beast of Isla.
How I despised that man. Taking away the best thing I've found in my life, my dear Leticia. I did not enjoy the thought of having to do him any favors, but Charlotte was truly Leticia's child. I could feel it from her eyes. So I would naturally do this much at least.
The seal was done. The heat had settled down, but her skin was still as hot as fever. I tried some magic dispersion spells, and found that her skin was an excellent conductor of magic. Almost on the same grade of Kraken marbles...maybe in compensation I would ask her for some of her skin instead. Maybe that was why she absorbed so much of the magical power.
And having a skin that could conduct magic well, meaning that she would be a natural genius at transformation and shape-shifting spells. A very rare natural talent that would greatly enhance her fighting ability as well as threat level in the eye of the kingdom.
For Leticia's child, I would keep this in the dark. But one day...
And since she was a natural at transformation spells, it only took me one advanced magic dispersion spell for her physically body to greedily absorb the magical energy and convert into chemical one. It might hurt a bit, but she seemed to be deeply unconscious, so she shouldn't feel too much of it.
In the blink of an eye, she became a three years old child.
The steps were getting closer. I sluggishly raised my battered body. Researchers like me really should not engage in all of this dramatic action. It's not good for women of my age...cough!
I put up my nephew's body against the wall. He seemed okay, with just some bumps in the head from the fall. I healed him for a bit, before quickly grabbing the girl's body on the floor. Making my way inside through the smoke, I put her on the bed, and draped the blanket over her.
I walked to the border of the carpet. A researcher was one who always prepared. I just hadn't known I needed to use this for an experiment on a kid.
But I guess, I had already put quite a high stakes on her already. Accepting her as a disciple despite her past, giving her my self-mixed soul cleansing potions, using my expensive Kraken marble on her, using a fourth of my inner magical energy on her...I would be damned if she did not turn into a magician to be feared by the whole kingdom. With her natural talent, and my magical knowledge, I would make sure she become the strongest magician of her generation.
With an incantation, the magic circle imbued in the carpet glowed a bright golden colour, like topaz. Then a protective barrier was set in place.
This was one of my masterpieces. One of the strongest holy-element barriers that could block almost every elements, imbued in my carpet and could be activated any time, but only one time. The barrier would prevent any intruders from disturbing her, and also to contain the damage if...my bet failed and she exploded in her sleep due to unstable magic power.
When she managed to wake up and was able to think rationally, the mere amount of magic in her body should let her break this barrier with ease. Though that thought saddened me quite a bit. It had taken no less than one month to brainstorm this magic circle and two days to actually create it.
But just in case, I would put a curtain to block people from getting all curious. A sleeping patient deserved her much-needed privacy after all.
...I wonder though, why had she suddenly exploded at the sight of my nephew? What had you done to her, Keith?