Blade Over Magic

Radiation

Aubrey, Curtis, and Falael sat on the grass while Xander stood. Behind them, Keir lay on the ground, looking a bit miserable as Mia was fast asleep on his head, and off to the side, Mary stood carrying a tray of refreshments.

It would seem that once again, Xander wanted to present theories on how the trio could improve their abilities.

"Is it weird that I’ve started looking forward to these ’lectures’?" Curtis tilted his head.

"It’s not surprising. Every time they happen, we gain a lot and improve in one direction or another." Aubrey shrugged. Falael just grumbled.

"Yeah, but it feels like Xander knows more about our own abilities and magic than we do." At that, Xander shrugged.

"If you don’t wanna listen then you’re free to leave." Falael stiffened, ears twitching, then the mumbled while looking away.

"I didn’t say that..." that earned a few eye rolls.

"Good, because I actually wanted to start with you." His words caused the half-elf to look up in surprise.

"Is it related to me training my body? What else is there to it?" They tilted their head, a bit confused, but Xander shook his head.

"No. It’s about your magic. But not your output. That’s great at the moment." He rubbed his chin in that familiar manner.

"... Then what?" Falael urged, and Curtis and Aubrey paid attention. Even though it wasn’t directed at them, it was always interesting to see Xander revolutionize magical concepts on the spot. Even Mia cracked her eyes open in his direction.

Xander pondered for a moment before speaking.

"Well, obviously, your Starlight Magic is based on stars, and you have a literal star in your mana pool acting as a battery. Your output and damage reflect these as well, but there is something it lacks that kinda bugs me." He pointed at them.

"Radiation." This surprised them.

"... Radiation? Doesn’t that only come from certain materials found underground?" They asked in confusion.

To be clear, radiation was a concept that existed in Tatonia. Granted, its scientific knowledge wasn’t enough for them to know the different types of radiation that existed, but, well, there had been numerous incidents in the past where earth mages found certain materials like raw uranium.

There was actually a recorded case Xander read about where they compressed a vein of raw uranium into a dense block, but there was a recorded blue flash that caused the mages to fall sick and almost die.

Xander knew that the mages had actually pushed the atoms inside the uranium too close together, causing critical mass where they got blasted by ionizing radiation. Sadly, Tatonia didn’t know much about that, so its inhabitants simply flagged the ore as dangerous and unfit for use.

Granted, imagining a world like this having access to nuclear weapons... yeah.

Moving back on track, Xander continued.

"You’re right that these materials produce radiation, but they aren’t the only source. If you remember the lesson I gave Curtis on how everything is made up of tiny particles, then you’d remember me mentioning that not all of these particles are the same. Some have different properties and behave differently as well." Curtis perked up when he heard his name, and Aubrey was no doubt filing this information away in his library.

"Okay, but what does that have to do with radiation or my magic?" Falael rested their chin on their palm, ears twitching as they listened to Xander, and when Aubrey caught sight of their side profile, she noticed with some apprehension that their attention wasn’t wholly from interest in what Xander was saying. Almost as if... they simply enjoyed watching him talk.

Xander, however, seemed completely oblivious as he elaborated.

"Well, for how it interacts with radiation. Simply put, certain types of these particles are inherently unstable because they have too much energy and they basically break apart. Like a very excited... ball of mana." He made a gesture with his hands to signify something exploding.

"And when these particles do break apart, they shoot off tiny bullets of energy. If these hit your body, they cause very microscopic damage, affecting your very cells, which, as you know, is what happened to those earth mages when the healers explained what made them sick." Falael nodded slowly.

"So how does this affect my magic?" At this, Xander hummed.

"Well, your attack potency is a sight to behold, but it still doesn’t fully encompass the true terror of stars. In the first place, your attacks sort of resemble light magic, but also not quite. Stars release radiation en-masse because the extreme temperatures cause these particles to react in a way that causes them to release these invisible bullets of energy. Keep in mind, that explanation is extremely watered down because I can’t confidently get into the complete thing, but this is just an idea. Do you follow me so far?" Hearing this, Falael folded their arms and tilted their head thoughtfully.

"So basically, stars release radiation because of a certain reaction within them that is a result of its extreme temperatures interacting with the particles that make them up. Right?" They asked clarifyingly.

"More or less." Xander nodded.

"And you want me to somehow mimic this process?" They raised a brow, their tone becoming dubious.

"... No." Xander hesitated before shaking his head. "You already have said star in your Mana Pool. So on paper, it should already be releasing radiation passively, but your attacks don’t reflect that, which is a bit confusing." He scratched his head. "In the first place, how do you use your Mana when you cast a spell." When he asked that, Falael stared at him blankly.

"... Are you being serious?" Their tone was deadpan, but Xander didn’t flinch.

"Humor me." His flat answer made them click their tongue.

"How else? The star pretty much helps me produce Mana. When it does, I use what filled my mana pool to cast a spell. What else is there?" When they explained this, Xander rubbed his chin again, falling silent.

’Hm. I originally wanted to ask if they’ve ever drawn Mana from the star directly, but I remember that they said when they blasted the Azure Tree, they drew Mana from the star directly in large amounts. Same as when they tried to blast the ant. Hm... oh!’ He clapped his hands together.

"When you draw the mana you want to use, is all of it the same, or is it different any how?" The question confused the trio.

"... What?" Xander pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Like... okay picture a stream of dirty water. There’s obviously the water, but the dirt is also there. Both of them are moving together, but they can be separated as well. Is there something similar with you?" A look of realization dawned on their face.

"Huh... actually now that you mention it, yeah." They closed their eyes and focused on their mana pool.

In the center was the blazing star that constantly unleashed energy that was starlight mana, but this mana which currently filled the mana pool wasn’t perfectly the same. A lot of it was the mana they used when casting spells, but there was also another type that existed alongside it.

Well, calling it a ’type’ would be a bit inaccurate as it still stemmed from the same source, but there was indeed some Mana from the star that was different from the type Falael was more prone to using.

They had actually noticed it before, but they never used it because it didn’t really strike them as... potent. The other ’type’ of Mana was far more destructive, which was reflected in their spells, so this more subtle one was mostly forgotten.

Was it actually something important that they had been ignoring for so long.

"I see it. It’s a secondary mana type that I’ve been ignoring." Falael opened their eyes and voiced out their doubt.

"But two things. First of all, why wasn’t it just automatically incorporated into all my attacks if it stems from the same source as the rest of my mana? Second, is it really that significant to have? I mean, the records of radiation state that it took at least a day before the affected mages started showing problems, and our future opponents will be far stronger than them. Heck, I’m pretty sure many of our past opponents were. Is it something that important or do you just want my attacks to have another underlying layer to them? Or perhaps using it in conjunction with the raw destruction creates a certain effect?" Falael fired off questions at Xander, but Xander just gave off a mysterious smile.

It was obvious from their words that they did not understand the true horror of radiation. While they were correct that it indeed took a while for relatively weak mages to fall victim to radiation sickness, the truth was that the level of radiation stars could release far exuded any normal or even abnormal lethal dose someone could receive on a planet.

If Xander’s guess was correct, then Falael had the potential to be even more dangerous on a battlefield than Curtis with his absolute zero ice.

As for their first question...

"Well, my guess is that since stars are actually made up of numerous moving parts, you can interact with these parts individually, which is why your choice not to incorporate radiation into your base attacks reflected this. This is just a guess on my part, though." Xander shrugged.

Falael mused for a few seconds, then they sighed and stood.

"Then I guess this is the part where I actually unleash this radiation? As a test?" They asked, and Xander nodded.

"Yup." Then he paused, and consequently frowned.

"Granted, radiation is mostly effective against biological things. But it should work on things like certain alloys and concrete. So structures in general." Falael gave Xander a flat stare.

"So I have nothing to use it against?" They concluded, and Xander forced a cough.

"Uh, Mia?" Xander tested his luck.

Mia fully opened her eyes, glanced at him, then waved her hand.

Everyone watched as what looked like the corpse of a beast appeared on the floor. It resembled a large ape with yellow fur and four arms.

"Thank you." Mia just gave a thumbs up and closed her eyes again.

Xander then looked at Falael and gestured for them to try it.

They huffed and looked at the creature’s corpse.

Then, they draw large amounts of the ’other’ mana from their mana pool, but before the released it.

"Wait!" Xander’s shout startled both them and the other two. Falael gave a look of irritation at this.

"Now what?" Xander smiled nervously.

"I just remembered that avoiding that stuff is very hard. You should be fine since it’s your mana, but uh, Curtis and Aubrey, and probably myself, will need some protection." He didn’t mention Mia, Keir, and Mary as that was already obvious enough.

At this, Falael clicked their tongue, but thankfully, Mary snapped her fingers, and a transparent wind barrier surrounded Xander, Curtis, and Aubrey.

"Okay. Now you can proceed." Falael huffed with annoyance, but they once again raised their hand and drew on the mana that was the supposed radiation.

Or radiation attribute mana, since it obviously wasn’t flat radiation.

They then released it from their hand, and a very bright flash of blue light briefly shone before dying down just as fast.

For a moment, nothing happened.

"... Now what?" Falael scratched their head.

But a moment later...

The fur on the ape’s for started to fall off, revealing its naked skin... then it began to turn a sickly shade of purple.

Then the flesh started to slough of...

Then the muscles started to collapse.

They wall watched in horror as the corpse essentially just... liquefied in front of them in under a minute, leaving nothing but bone, and even that started to break down moments later.

At the same time, the surrounding grass started to wither and die before simply just falling apart. The radiation didn’t just damage their cells, the sheer output completely overwhelmed their structural integrity, leading the tissue to simply collapse.

There was just silence for a moment, and Falael turned to say something. However, they paused as an... odd secen played out.

The radiation didn’t affect them, yes. However, it did affect every unprotected thing in their range.

This included their robe.

Aubrey reacted the quickest, her hands shooting out to cover Xander and Curtis’s eyes.

What followed was a shrill scream.