The news from Lucca came about an hour after the battle had ended at the Pride, and he had gone out, examining the beasts' corpses by himself. For now, there were no signs of anything unusual, whether it was the Vasas or otherwise, attempting to manipulate them, but his report suggested he still believed this attack was not a random occurrence. I skimmed the rest, noting the reports on the used-up ammunition, the crew's efficiency, and the parts I trusted they could handle by themselves. If I had to worry about those parts, too? Something had gone really wrong within Avalon. As for the crew of the Camelot, they were constantly loading up the ship with supplies to allow us to remain there for an extended period of time. I was preparing to head back to the Pride, but there were things to finish here in Avalon before I left, and one of them was standing right in front of me. In a way... eh. It was more like floating. Of course, it was Zah'Ratil's head, teaching Arthur, who sat at the center of the study, with the Vasa transmitter stone hovering above his palm. Everyone else had already cleared the room, except Sasha, who stood silently by the window, and, of course, me, watching the lesson. Like we would let him stay alone with our son, heh.

"Savior." He began the moment he appeared, "Are you ready to learn?"

"..." Arthur quickly glanced at us first, but then turned back and nodded. "Yes."

Haaah... Let's see where this goes... I wanted to hear exactly how this teaching worked before deciding whether to strangle the man through his magic rock or not.

"Then listen carefully." He began, being serious both in tone and look, "You must understand the structure of magic first. I don't know what kind of know-how you all possess after these times, but what I am going to impart to you comes from the Gods' teachings. It is the rule of the heavens, from where they come from, that is filled with endless, primal energies."

Like radiation? I wanted to ask, but I kept my mouth shut, only throwing my questions out in my head, without letting them escape.

"That abundant, all-encompassing power of their Cosmos seeps into our Realm, even now. It is unavoidable... They taught us that our world was injured and damaged, unable to filter the heavens' raw essence properly, allowing it to flood in without limit. They came down and reshaped the world, saving us from destruction, bringing order into chaos, and creating two halves of our world: one that acts as a purifier so we won't get poisoned. And then one, where we could live, grow, adapt."

"How long would it take? I mean... that adapting part." Arthur asked, probably feeling the question I had in my mind, interrupting Zah'Ratil. Good lad.

"Thousands upon thousands of years at the minimum," Zah'Ratil answered after a brief moment. "That means that eventually, mages would become more and more frequent, until we can harness the energy by ourselves."

"Weren't there more mages in the past, in your time?" Arthur asked again, using precisely the questions I had formed in my head.

"We..." Zah'Ratil stopped, sighing, "There are methods to cut corners, and we did that. After they left, many of us, not just my Sect, but multiple others, decided that we wanted to follow them. There were numerous methods to harvest and work the energies, but ours were the most efficient, making us the dominant force. But they all worked on the same principle, designed for our Realm by the God Wyland." As he spoke, faint runes appeared in the air above the stone, rotating like gears, coming together and finally forming three concentric circles. The outer ring pulsed red, the middle one glowed white, while the inner was black and still, not yet turning. No matter how I looked at it... It was a copy of the Gods' Formation, albeit flawed. Something was missing from the equation, so it wasn't as simple as just copying it... Which was not weird. That formation was constantly shifting and changing. "The formations," Zah'Ratil continued, "are the interface from which we can enact our will, influence the raw energies. It is the link between us and, well, magic. As for the beasts... they're different, but only in how they come to be. Heaven's energy is powerful in its raw form, already possessing the building stones that God Wyland used. So, there comes from the fact that they consume so much of that power that it leaves an imprint on them, carved into the beast's bone. It defines the purpose of their magic, codifying it in their being. Then, when the system is set, their blood serves as the conduit, carrying the energy through their bodies and activating the runes as needed. As they constantly circulate this power, it slowly builds up within them, and after they have enough to physically coalesce, their core finally forms within their bodies."

"Hmmm..." Arthur leaned forward, his brows furrowing. "So it's a closed circuit."

"Circuit?" Zah'Ratil muttered, trying to understand, but when failing, he continued, "I don't know exactly what that is, but it is a magical system that works without any interference and is in a loop. It constantly gathers energy, grows, and strengthens itself. But, because it is something that we call a runaway magic system, it has no breaks, no safeties, no control. It constantly wants to grow and expand."

"So it erodes the beast's mind." Arthur hummed, "It takes over its will and even its instincts."

"Yes. What remains is the desire to grow and consume more of the heavens. But it is also what makes them vulnerable." As the projection expanded, I could see thousands of tiny runes branching out like nerves through a stylized skeletal structure. Damn... This was nothing but an engineering class. As I listened, Zah'Ratil went on, his tone almost academic, making me think I was back in university. "To command such a beast, you must introduce your own signal into the flow. It seems hard, but it isn't, not if you have the know-how. The best method is a controlled pulse of your innate energy. We usually use a phrase written in our blood that acts as an entry point. It acts even quicker and better when it's mixed with the creature's own blood..."

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"I slowly get the feeling why they began changing," I leaned over and whispered to Sasha, who kept watching without blinking, nodding with a stern look. She kept looking at Zah'Ratil like a hawk, ready to jump in if anything happened.

"The circuit will recognize it as the original design's command key." Zah'Ratil continued in the meanwhile, "When your will enters the beast's circulation, then it has already lost, and it will obey. You know this to be true... You sensed it previously when I helped you do it for the first time on those bones. Although that was much easier, thanks to the beasts being dead."

"Yes..." Arthur frowned. "So... I... hijack their nervous system."

"A crude but accurate comparison." Zah'Ratil nodded, "Even though they no longer use it, driven by their hunger, that doesn't mean their brain is not there. It is just in a catatonic state, mostly reactive and only proactive when it comes to consuming magic. And they hate spending it!" He added, getting a bit motivated, "When a beast uses its magic to cast a spell, it shows desperation, panic, or something akin to those lines. It shows you that they are feeling deathly threatened."

"I wonder what Merlin's take on this will be," I whispered again.

"The old one?" Sasha asked back, her eyes still fixed on the projection, "Good question."

"Stabilization. Synchronization. Command. Three phases that you must remember." Zah'Ratil continued, raising his voice like an annoyed teacher, noticing we were grumbling about something, standing in the corner, "The first ensures your mind remains anchored while the network is active between you and the monster or monsters. If you have a wavering mind, it can confuse you, and you can lose yourself in the feeling. We must not let that happen."

"Damn fucking right." I snorted, finally making Zah'Ratil look towards us. "What?"

"..." He said nothing, looking back at Arthur while Sasha finally smiled, which was more of a smirk, leaning against me. Heh... I still got it. "The second adapts the beast's flow to yours. To execute your will, their system must be working as you intended it to work. Don't be afraid of burning them out, they are beasts... No value would be lost if they expire. As for the last one, it is the culmination of the first two, allowing you to use the creature as you wish. But!" He paused, making sure Arthur was listening to him, "The monster's desire for consuming magic will claw at your will, and it will do it constantly. You must not indulge it. To control, you must remain yourself. Now," Zah'Ratil said softly, exhaling, "I will impart to you our way of taking over a creature's will. I will show you the pattern, and you will inherently understand it, as you have our gift. You will see."

Arthur nodded silently and watched as the runes above the stone shifted again, forming a sequence of light, producing the runes one by one at first, before finally coming together into a rotating formation with multiple layers, capable of exchanging runes without disrupting the magic itself, slotting in and out as required. It was... Fuck. I know this design.

"Good," Zah'Ratil murmured, watching as Arthur recreated it effortlessly, because he was indeed familiar with it, but not because of what Zah'Ratil probably thought about why.

While they were doing that, I caught myself leaning closer. Damn it... It was just mathematics. Code. And we already used it before. These bastards were using my Trojan spell! It was almost exactly the same, only a bit... well, more complicated looking. However... The more I scrutinized their version, the more I grimaced. They don't understand basic coding? I am not a whizz-kid myself either; I only knew the bare minimum I had to get familiar with, but please! This is highly inefficient stuff. There are at least a dozen irrelevant runes added to it, causing the activation of the spell to be about a second slower than our version. Hmph. Okay... they do have some nifty ideas in this, but still... Ours is better. And now I have new concepts to improve it with. I can make this better... And I will. Hmph! You want my son? I will make sure to surprise you and take control of that Ignis myself. Just watch, Candyman...

"..." Arthur must have sensed my mood, because his following words came slowly and carefully, not wanting to give it away, glancing at me briefly. "It's like tricking the formation into thinking I belong to it."

"Not tricking," Zah'Ratil corrected him, "We are actually rewriting how the monster's core looks at things. In the end, it would reject the beast's will and only listen to you."

Yeah, and you have left about a dozen backdoors open... I wanted to say, but kept my mouth shut. No wonder you idiots transformed yourselves! I can see the actual holes in the formation, allowing the beast's magic to seep back through them as long as the connection lives. It's minimal and probably unnoticeable, maybe appearing as a type of sickness here and there, but give it enough time, generations even, and bam! You will start to transform. Then, there is the fact that they began modifying themselves. Heh... they were doomed from the start. As I was thinking about it, Zah'Ratil's tone grew solemn, warning my son.

"But remember this: the deeper the connection, the greater the risk. Every pulse, command, and thought you send through their blood invites theirs into yours. If you lose your grounding, you will not command a beast... You will become one..." So they did know about it, huh? Then that means they don't have any clue how to fix it. Amateurs! Let me at it... I will call on Merlin too, and we will have a new version before the end of winter. "That's enough for today," Zah'Ratil said through the fading glow as the connection was beginning to flicker. "You now understand the basic structure. The rest will come with practice... When you can use it without thinking about it, I can show you how to influence the beast's cores, how to disable their magic, how to make their inside cascade into chaos, killing them. With enough control, you can invite their flesh and scales to become part of–"

"The fuck you are!" Well... That wasn't me. It was Sasha, blurting it out the moment Zah'Ratil mentioned it. Hmmm... I guess then Ur'Tokh's armor moved like that because it was indeed part of his flesh. It makes sense, but for sure, I won't let my boy be mutated like that. Who wants to grow a crustaceous-like skin?! Always be armored and pull it back into your skin... Ew.

"We will continue from here... I need rest." Zah'Ratil muttered, ignoring Sasha as we watched how the connection dimmed, and the stone returned to its dull black form, landing in Arthur's palm as the Vasa's mind retreated.

"Haaah..." Arthur turned to me after a momentary pause, "Well?"

"Sloppy," I rubbed my chin while answering, "I can make a better version. Don't use theirs."

"I had a similar feeling, Dad," Arthur smiled faintly. "So you're saying I might actually learn something useful, though?"

"Not from them." I grinned, making him smile too, "Let your Daddy at it first... I'll get back to you the moment I have something waaaaay safer. And more powerful."

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