Chapter 43
Enchantment Magic was nothing short of divine.
Marshall’s Inspiration was rising.
No... its surging.
No... its absolutely exploding!
He was riding the greatest high of his life!
"M-Marshall... I really can’t take any more. Your big sister is... finished. I can’t keep going..."
Mirajane lay collapsed facedown in an undignified heap, every limb aching and her entire body drained of strength.
She did not want to move another inch!
Marshall had spent the past several hours repeatedly testing Enchantment Magic through Mira’s body, and the results had been extraordinarily promising.
Ever since learning the spell, he had begun suffering from the delightful illusion that his strength had suddenly skyrocketed.
This magic suited him perfectly.
Enchantment Magic granted various properties and magical effects to objects or living beings.
It possessed no direct offensive power of its own and was, in the purest sense, a support magic.
Even at Level One, Marshall could easily enchant someone with elemental attributes.
The initial enchantment consumed very little magic power, and the person receiving it could supply the energy required to maintain the effect.
That meant Marshall could enchant many people at once without much difficulty.
When he enchanted Mira with fire, flames obediently burned across her hands.
She had never studied Fire Magic before, yet the flames she produced were fiercely hot.
Aside from her inability to eat fire, she hardly looked any different from Natsu, an actual Dragon Slayer.
Marshall tested several other attributes in succession—wood, ice, wind, lightning, earth, and water.
Every one of them displayed remarkable power, no weaker than the magic of a Mage who specialized in that element.
The life property of wood even allowed Mira to absorb vitality from trees and store it inside her body.
And that was only Enchantment Magic’s first extraordinary advantage.
When Marshall enchanted Mira with an attribute, the resulting power did not primarily depend on him as the caster.
It depended on Mira’s own magic power.
For example, if Mira’s ordinary punch dealt one hundred points of damage, adding a single point of light enchantment might transform it into a light-enhanced punch dealing one thousand and one.
Enchantment Magic was not as simple as one plus one equaling two.
It could multiply a person’s existing strength several times over, and it did not even require the enchanter to possess exceptional mastery of the element involved.
Advancing elemental magic mainly improved one’s understanding and control of that element.
Level Three Light Magic granted Marshall greater resistance and allowed him to manipulate light more precisely, but if the same amount of magic power were used, there was not a dramatic difference in raw destructive force between Level One and Level Three.
That meant Marshall did not need to raise the enormous collection of Level One elemental spells he possessed.
As long as his magic power was strong enough, Enchantment Magic could draw out the full benefits of each attribute anyway.
It was practically cheating.
The true limitation was the human body.
Mira could not withstand acceleration beyond what her flesh could endure.
Flames that burned too hot would injure her.
Turning her skin metallic made her body heavier, and an attack exceeding the limits of her defenses would still hurt her.
But Enchantment Magic was not restricted to living bodies.
Marshall could enchant objects too.
He enchanted a sword with light, then launched it through the air using Magic Power Control.
The resulting destruction was comparable to that of a small missile.
It carried far more force than Mira’s body could ever withstand. Aside from being somewhat inaccurate, it had no real weakness.
It was pure damage.
Enchanting a sword with fire allowed Marshall to raise its temperature to terrifying levels as long as he continued supplying magic power.
The same principle applied to other elements.
Enchanted weapons were absurdly powerful.
Their only real drawback was the enormous magic consumption.
In other words, nearly every apparent weakness came from the person or object receiving the enchantment rather than the magic itself.
Enchantment Magic was completely unbalanced.
And this was only Level One—the most basic possible application.
Easy to control, inexpensive to cast, and devastatingly effective.
How had this magic not been nerfed?
This was what true high-level magic looked like!
As for Gildarts’s ridiculously difficult-to-control Crush Magic?
Never heard of it.
Simply enchanting a blade with the properties of Crush would turn it into a terrifying weapon capable of destroying almost anything it touched without the danger of the spell running wild.
The only concerns would be the magic cost and accidentally killing someone beyond any hope of saving them.
And all of that was still merely the simplest application of Enchantment Magic.
If that were all it could do, Marshall would not have been this excited.
The effects Enchantment Magic could grant had to come from abilities Marshall already possessed—magic he personally understood.
If someone like Natsu learned Enchantment Magic, he would probably do nothing but pile dragon power onto his own body until he became the ultimate muscle-bound idiot.
But in Marshall’s hands, the possibilities were practically endless.
After all, if there was one thing he possessed in abundance, it was magic.
Marshall enchanted a card with a spatial attribute, turning it into a portable storage space capable of holding Mira’s entire body.
He enchanted Mira with zero gravity and carried her through the air with ease.
He enchanted a pen with a fragment of his soul, and it began writing his novel by itself.
He enchanted himself with the state of Meditation and entered an automatic cultivation mode.
Aside from feeling more tired afterward, there were no side effects whatsoever.
Then Marshall tried combining it with the Script Magic he specialized in.
"Script Magic: Heal. State Enchantment."
Marshall wrote a glowing green character in the air, then used Enchantment Magic to imprint it onto Mira’s forehead.
"Huh? Wait—wait a second, Marshall! I’m almost out of magic power!"
Mira, who had been lying on the ground covered in small injuries, suddenly jumped to her feet.
The cuts and bruises across her body healed visibly, but her face became deeply exhausted.
"It only consumes magic power?" Marshall asked.
"Um... I think it also used up the energy I absorbed from the trees earlier."
"So it consumes vitality as well? That isn’t a problem. We can simply use both effects together."
Marshall could barely keep the corners of his mouth from rising as wild laughter filled his heart.
Who said Healing Magic had been lost?
He had just created it!
Oh, it was a new form of magic he had invented himself?
Then never mind.
He still had many more ideas left to test.
Marshall picked up an ordinary wooden sword.
"Script Magic: Sharp. State Enchantment."
A glowing character appeared on the blade.
Marshall thrust it toward a nearby boulder, and the wooden sword slid effortlessly through the stone until the entire blade was buried inside.
Calling it sharp enough to cut through steel like mud would not have been an exaggeration.
And this was only a wooden sword.
"It works better than Script Magic alone, and the magic cost is lower too..."
The magical states created through Script Magic could themselves be enchanted onto other things.
That opened even more possibilities.
"If Meditation can be enchanted as a state, could I automate physical training the same way? Could I make my muscles exercise themselves?"
Another idea lit up in Marshall’s mind.
He was so excited that he could no longer stop.
Mira had finally recovered enough to remove the enchanted character from her forehead. She cautiously raised one hand.
"Um... Big Sister’s injuries are healed now, but I’m really tired. Marshall, why don’t we stop here for today?"
"No. You can’t leave yet!"
"Marshall~ I don’t have a single drop of magic power left!"
"Mira-nee~ You promised to spend the entire day helping me test magic. Surely you wouldn’t break a promise to your little brother?"
"Ugh... But..."
"It’ll be fine. The next tests shouldn’t consume much magic power. And if your reserves run dry, I can replenish them through Link Magic."
"Whew... All right."
"Script Magic: Exercise. State Enchantment."
Two glowing characters drifted onto Mira’s forehead.
Her body jolted, and she suddenly began running against her will.
"Huh? Wh-What?! Why can’t I stop?!"
Mira ran circles around Marshall, sweating profusely as panic spread across her face.
"This isn’t right. It’s no different from using Script Magic by itself."
Marshall canceled the characters and fell into thought.
At its core, physical training was controlled damage inflicted upon the body, forcing it to activate a process of overcompensation during recovery and become stronger.
Strength training and endurance training were also different.
One involved tearing muscle fibers and repairing them.
The other exhausted the body and forced it to adapt.
If Marshall wanted to improve the body as a whole, he would need to consider not only the destruction and reconstruction of muscle fibers, but also the development of mitochondria, capillaries, and countless smaller systems...
Wait.
Didn’t that simply mean injuring the body and then healing it?
Marshall’s eyes lit up.
He had an idea!
"Mira, come on. Let’s absorb some vitality from the trees first."
"Huh?"
Still dazed, Mira followed Marshall deeper into the forest.
...
"AAAAAH! IT HURTS! IT HURTS SO MUCH!"
Mira’s agonized screams echoed through the woods.
...
Some time later...
"Mm. That concludes today’s testing. I collected some excellent data."
Marshall nodded with satisfaction.
"You can go home now. Come back tomorrow and help me continue the experiments."
Mira lay crumpled nearby like a discarded rag, her eyes unfocused and her entire body trembling from the ordeal.
The moment she heard him, she violently flinched and forced a strained smile.
"Ahaha... I-I’m leaving on a job tomorrow. Next time! I’ll definitely help next time!"
Mira fled without looking back.
She swore she would never help Marshall test magic again.
Marshall smiled smugly.
It seemed he had gained an unexpected benefit from today’s experiments.
Mira probably would not come over and bother him nearly as often anymore!
With a thought, he sent his voice directly into her mind.
[You aren’t allowed to run away before my new magic is complete. You wouldn’t abandon me to finish everything alone, would you, Mira-nee~?]
"WAAAAH! NOOOO!"
Mira sprinted away even faster, tears streaming behind her.