Chapter 34
"The wind up here is ridiculous..." Cana shouted over the storm. "And it’s freezing! No wonder nobody wants to accept jobs around this place!"
The three of them pushed forward through the snow.
Cana led the way while Marshall rested on Erza’s back, quietly maintaining a Fire Magic aura that raised the surrounding temperature.
Thanks to that, none of them felt particularly cold.
Raising the level of an elemental magic also granted a certain amount of resistance to that element.
A Mage with powerful Ice Magic, for example, naturally developed greater tolerance for low temperatures.
Unfortunately, Marshall’s Ice Magic was still only Level One.
The cold resistance it provided was barely worth mentioning.
"I hear them," Marshall suddenly said. "Turn right ahead. There’s a cave roughly three hundred meters away with monsters inside."
He listened for another moment.
"They should be the Vulcans we’re looking for. There are... four of them."
"Perfect!" Cana immediately brightened. "Erza, let’s compete and see who defeats more!"
"I have no intention of losing."
Both girls increased their pace.
Even with Marshall riding on her back, Erza moved without the slightest difficulty.
As they approached the cave, Marshall floated down and flicked a ball of light inside, illuminating the darkness.
It was indeed a Vulcan nest.
"Card Magic: Bind! Card Magic: Fireball!"
"Requip: Flame Empress Armor!"
The Vulcans had been sleeping peacefully when the surprise attack struck.
They were caught completely off guard and barely had a chance to fight back.
Marshall remained near the edge of the battle, watching from a safe distance and occasionally casting a spell to prevent any of the creatures from escaping.
The fight ended quickly.
Cana and Erza might have been only twelve and thirteen years old, but both were exceptionally talented Mages.
The Vulcans possessed strong bodies, yet that alone was nowhere near enough to compete with them.
"All four are tied up!" Cana announced. "What do we do next?"
Marshall produced a blank Magic Card and began feeding it magic power.
The card shone with blue light, projecting a magical contract into the air.
"This is a soul contract. It forces the signer to surrender their soul and obey the contractor unconditionally. It’s an extremely restrictive compulsory contract."
Marshall pointed toward one section.
"We first inject magic power into the position marked as Party A, then force this big fellow to leave some of its own magic in the Party B section—"
Before he could finish, the Vulcan in front of him began shaking its head frantically, wearing an expression of heroic defiance.
[No way! I’d rather die than serve a man! Vulcan!]
"..."
Marshall silently handed the card to Cana.
The Vulcan’s expression changed instantly.
It began nodding repeatedly while drooling.
[A pretty girl is perfectly acceptable! Vulcan!]
"Maybe we should just kill this one."
"Don’t start it!"
Marshall sighed and continued explaining.
"...You need to press the card against its forehead when activating the contract."
Once Cana took over, the Vulcans became remarkably cooperative.
They surrendered without hesitation and eagerly offered their loyalty.
After all four Vulcans left traces of their magic power on the projected contract, their images appeared on the previously blank card.
Four stars then formed across the top, followed by its name: [Four Vulcans]
"Because of the limits of the materials and my current technique, each card can only contain so much spiritual power."
Marshall studied it carefully.
"A four-star card is the highest grade I can currently produce."
Although creating a card required several different branches of magic, Card Magic LV1 had not shattered and separated the way Celestial Spirit Magic had.
The skill remained intact.
Marshall suspected that was because card creation was an independent craft.
As long as someone possessed the spell model he had developed, they could theoretically create a card with the same effect.
That was exactly what Cana needed.
Her card-crafting technique was superior to Marshall’s. Once he taught her this magic, she should be able to create cards of an even higher quality.
Erza examined the card curiously.
"This is different from the cards you gave us before, isn’t it?"
"Of course it is. The cards I gave you didn’t involve any kind of contract."
Marshall handed it to Cana.
"Try activating this one."
"Okay!"
Cana injected magic power into the card again.
The four bound Vulcans suddenly began trembling.
Their bodies rapidly wilted like deflating balloons. Their eyes became unfocused, and their faces turned deathly pale.
At the same time, four identical Vulcans appeared in front of Cana.
The summoned creatures looked at their restrained original bodies, scratched their heads in confusion, then crowded around Cana while bowing and scraping like eager servants awaiting their young mistress’s orders.
"Oh!" Cana’s eyes widened. "Did it work? I feel like I can order them to do almost anything!"
Erza frowned in concern.
"Marshall, does this card also involve mind-control magic? The Magic Council has outlawed spells like that."
"...No."
Marshall rubbed his forehead.
"Soul Magic only prevents them from attacking the person they contracted with. They’re simply a group of perverted monkeys who willingly obey Cana."
He looked at the Vulcans with disgust.
"I still recommend killing them. I didn’t know they had personalities like this. Summons this embarrassing could damage Cana’s reputation."
Marshall suddenly paused.
"Wait. Cana, give me the card."
"Here~"
Marshall canceled the summoning, then produced a pen.
Using magic power, he pulled a long chain of densely packed magical script out of the card and began rewriting the spell structure on the spot.
"All right. Summon them again."
The four Vulcans, which had barely begun recovering, convulsed once more and collapsed flat against the ground.
This time, however, Cana summoned four baby-faced, muscle-bound creatures wearing tiny dresses.
They looked like bodybuilders wearing doll costumes.
"Pfft—Marshall!" Cana burst into laughter. "What are those?! Did you turn all of them into female monkeys?"
"Vulcan! Vulcan!" all four shrieked.
The muscular dolls spun in frantic circles, their faces filled with horror!
"Mm... They’re much easier to look at now."
Marshall nodded in satisfaction.
"I added a little Transformation Magic to the card. That way, even if they behave disgustingly, nobody will take them seriously."
He turned his attention back to the Vulcans’ original bodies.
Their faces were gray, their eyes nearly empty, and they could barely move.
The Vulcans did not know Soul Magic themselves.
The Thought Projections being summoned were forcibly extracted by the spell model Marshall had created.
Nearly all of their awareness had been transferred into the projections.
"The magic still has flaws, but I’d call it complete."
Marshall observed the collapsed bodies.
"The weakness is obvious. After being summoned, the originals lose almost all combat ability. If someone kills their real bodies while the projections are active, the summoned forms will disappear too."
He muttered thoughtfully.
"I think I finally understand why Celestial Spirit Magic is the undisputed best form of Summoning Magic."
His eyes narrowed.
"And the passage of time in the Celestial Spirit World must be different from the human world..."
Erza turned toward Cana.
"Does maintaining four summons at once consume much magic power?"
"Huh?" Cana checked herself. "Now that you mention it, I don’t feel like I’ve lost much at all."
"That’s because the pseudo-Thought Projections are drawing most of their magic power from the original bodies," Marshall explained.
"The advantage is that summoning them costs very little. The downside is that their real bodies can easily die in an accident."
He pointed toward the four creatures.
"Keeping them in continuous combat would still consume a great deal of magic power, though."
"Oh?" Erza considered that. "The summons themselves don’t need to fear death, but their original bodies have to be protected instead."
She looked at the unconscious Vulcans.
"Suddenly, the contracted creatures seem rather pitiful."
"Hmph. There’s a reason we chose monsters for the experiment."
Marshall showed no sympathy.
"They raid towns and hurt people. There’s no reason to feel sorry for them. If one dies, we can simply contract several more as replacements."
"Wow! Marshall is so cold-hearted!" Cana giggled and moved closer. "Your big sister loves it~"
She tried to hug him, but Marshall pushed her away because her clothes were freezing.
"Marshall," Erza said, "could this magic also be used to contract humans?"
"Theoretically, yes. In practice, it would be difficult."
Marshall shook his head.
"The one thing humans are naturally stronger at than most monsters is the soul. Even an ordinary human soul is more powerful than that of most Magical Beasts."
"Contract Magic would have difficulty completely controlling a human, and an unstable summon has no value."
He paused.
"Unless the person willingly separated a Thought Projection the way I do."
Erza considered his explanation.
"I see... I have a feeling that if this magic spreads, it might create an entirely new kind of Mage."
She glanced at the Vulcans.
"The future may not be kind to monsters."
"That would be a good thing."
Marshall looked toward the snowy mountains beyond the cave.
"I think one of the reasons civilization develops so slowly in this world is that there are far too many monsters."
"Unless a guild posts a paid job, most powerful Mages have no reason to exhaust themselves hunting Magical Beasts. Meanwhile, ordinary people can barely survive outside protected settlements."
"Most of Fiore’s territory is effectively controlled by monsters, so human civilization has very little room to expand."
He smiled.
"If Summoning Cards give Mages a reason to actively capture and tame them, this magic might genuinely change the world someday."
"You’re right!" Cana raised the card triumphantly. "I’ll make Summoning Card Magic famous!"
She threw her head back and laughed.
"In the future, I’ll become Fiore’s Queen of Cards! Hehehehehe!"
"Let’s keep moving," Marshall said. "Since we’re already here, we might as well contract a few more Vulcans."
"Let’s go!" Cana pointed dramatically deeper into the mountains. "Monsters of Mount Hakobe, your queen has arrived!"