Steel and Mana

Chapter 250 – Dissection

The carcass of the dead mage, along with the captured one, arrived on a cloudy, heavily rainy day. I was with Arthur when it happened, checking on him, breathing a sigh of relief that his fever was no longer present. Although he was still a bit sleepy and less active than before, he was through the worst of it. As for his sister, Leyla was like a miniature nurse, following Mikan's example and taking care of her brother at all times.

"Everything is fine, Leon?" Merlin asked as we walked, being flanked by a group of soldiers while we headed toward the temporary prison in the testing fields.

"Yep. Arthur is already way better and regained a healthy color. Luckily, nobody else got sick."

"Unlike the injured mage." He shrugged, "I checked on him when they arrived. It is probably because of his injury, but he will need time to recover so I can start interrogating him."

"Make sure he doesn't blow while we are visiting!" I moaned, rolling my eyes, which made him and the soldiers around us chuckle.

"Don't worry, My Sovereign, he won't! However, I am really curious about the other guy."

"I am surprised he didn't start dissolving by now." I countered as we entered the building, dressed in what I would deem a surgeon's outfit mixed with a hazmat suit. I wasn't taking risks, so we were wearing gloves, masks, trousers tucked into our boots, and long gowns hanging down to our knees. After finishing today, everything would be burnt away because I didn't want to risk it.

Well, the corpse, despite my words, didn't look good either. There was a reason why I didn't invite my wives over for this one... This was going to be nasty. After arriving in the cloudy, grey autumn rain and taking off our cloaks, the smell was already bad enough. Still, there was a reason why I wanted to be here. It was just a hunch on my part, but I was thinking about how this explosion would work.

I was contemplating the methods Pascal and his cronies could use to make a mage go pop. Scanning my mind, the multitude of books within it, and putting theories together, I completed four hypothetical paths that I would take if I wanted a similar result. The first was about sending a magic signal that excites the mage's mana and forces it to form a destructive spell that is nothing but an explosion within his body.

That was the weakest and possibly my least plausible explanation. The second method was that they had artifacts on them or within their bodies. Something that would do the same as the first method but amplify it to a degree that results in a much grandiose explosion. Once again, it was a shaky one at best, but oh well.

The last two were those that I really believed in, and I came with Merlin for this operation to see if I was right or not. Both of them were inspired by how the beasts are and by their unnatural evolution.

For one, I was curious if Pascal knew something similar to us. Maybe he made modifications with his followers, etching magic formations into their flesh. Maybe straight onto their bones? Or organs? Who knows, but I was here to see if that is how he did it. It would explain a lot, and for mages, it would probably be similar to how our magic tattoos worked. Just more... advanced? More in-depth? Heh... And they call us barbarians.

The second variant that I came up with was an even bolder and more extreme version: Make his mages swallow or infuse a piece of CC into their bodies. As for how plausible that was, I had no idea. CC dust is a deadly poison for them, so I don't know and don't dare to think about how a mage's body would respond to being forced to embed a CC into their bodies. I can only remember seeing the shipslaves do it... I for sure wouldn't want to dabble with THAT type of magic. For Pascal, though? I could see him do it. Maybe he did it. If we find CC within this corpse, I won't be stunned, at least.

I watched as Merlin, without batting an eye or being disgusted, began cutting up the naked body of the dead mage. His skin was already graying, with purple and greenish spots, especially around the hole in his chest where my soldier stabbed him.

"Hm, hm... Interesting..." Merlin mumbled, making me come out of my thoughts, watching him peel off the skin, open the chest cavity of the corpse, move his gloved fingers, and tap the end of his scalpel while thinking.

"That is?" I asked, leaning over the body, but I found nothing that I was looking for. Yet.

"Oh, I just mean, I read your books, but they are different from your drawings, Leon! I mean, not THAT different, it's just..."

"What I created was simply from my basic memory, mostly about first aid for soldiers. I am not a surgeon or a doctor, so... Don't be that surprised."

"It is fine; this is very interesting!" He chuckled and continued to work, beginning to pull out his organs and examine them. "I can at least document how it's decaying! I will write everything down from memory afterward and compile a new book from it. We can learn a lot from this! Now, I really don't want the other to explode. If he dies, I will immediately go and take him apart!"

"Merlin..." I warned him, making him blush, turning his face a few shades redder, quickly continuing his work, saying nothing more.

Sometimes, I do forget that he had a famous first life. Merlin is still Merlin, and although he didn't make the shipslaves, his work had to be part of how those abominations were developed. The Empire has, or at least had the knowledge to make people like those. No. To turn people into machines. Somewhere in the past, an Ishillian ruler designed them, experimenting with bodies, probably dead and living alike, turning humans into biological computers to maneuver the flying ships.

"Oh... Sovereign, look at this!"

"Hm?" I leaned over again after a deep breath, not wanting to smell the stench of the corpse. As my eyes moved, I could see where the edge of his scalpel was pointing at. "Found it..."

"It is as you guessed, Leon!"

True. I was right. Pascal did dabble with following the beast's way. What we found was a magic rune etched onto one of the vertebras in the dead mage's spine. It was still only one rune, so the formation had to be something three-dimensional, hidden in different parts of the body, etched into different bones.

"This will be a long day." I looked at Merlin, who was just as excited when we started.

"Don't worry, my Sovereign! I already have an idea where the others may be!"

"If so, let's continue." I answered with a chuckle, watching him go back to work. "But after this... we will need a long, sufficiently bubbly bath..."

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It took us multiple days to study our findings and to look over what we knew about shipslaves. I was ninety percent sure that what was in play here, hidden in their bodies, was derived from the methods they used in creating them. In the end, we found a complete magic formation embedded into their bones. They were perfectly made, imprinted into their being not by hand but by magic. Still, it was off from how the beasts' bones were. Those were much, much more intricate and way more complex, but we could see the similarities.

Merlin's first conclusion was that the magic of the enemy mages was a failsafe protocol: if they die or are captured, they will be destroyed, bringing down the enemy with themselves. As for whether it could be remotely activated, we were unsure, but our prisoner hadn't blown up yet. We were still determining if it was a self-inflicted spell, activated with mana or with their thoughts, or if it was automatic.

Speaking of the prisoner, he was finally in a relatively stable state thanks to Mikan's intervention. Of course, we weren't going to heal him just yet, but we made sure he would survive. Merlin will interrogate him, preferably before winter, and we will see what we can find. However, it will be more dangerous than before because this one could blow up... So, Sasha will have to be there to step in if must. I never said it out loud, but I was hesitant about it. I thought about just ending him, but Merlin was adamant about learning more from him, one way or another.

"Worried?" Asked Mikan, walking up to me while I was standing in our garden, looking up at the cloudy skies.

"A bit." I answered honestly, smiling at her while she put a cloak over me.

"Me too... but if it comes to magic, I don't think I have ever seen better mages than Merlin and Sasha."

"How many have you met?" I asked, as most of the time, I forget that she came from the Capital. She was once taught royal magic and looked upon as a future mage of the Empire.

"Eleven." She counted on her fingers before answering me, "My first teacher was a strong one. As for how strong, I can't tell... I didn't really understand it back then. He wasn't the best teacher, and because of my lack of skills and general ineptitude, he very quickly lost interest or the drive to teach me properly. Those who were like me, young wizards and witches, could learn much more quickly and pick up on basic spell-casting in a year if they were talented."

"In a year?" I asked, truly surprised. "I was so used to it... Since I met with Sasha, I could easily draw up formations while she could activate them. She didn't need a long time to master making them and developing her skills and spells. Then, there was Merlin... I thought this was normal."

"Normal?" Mikan asked, laughing, hugging my arm as she leaned against me. "No, it isn't normal, Leon. It is... frightening. Both of them and especially... You."

"Huh? Me? Why?"

"Because you don't know how magic feels, how it holds our hands when using spells. I can't clearly explain it, but when forming a magic formation, it is paired up with a feeling in our bodies. I many times feel it tickling me. Yet, here you are, doing the same without feeling it. You don't feel when it's right and when it's wrong..."

"But you can do the same now. You can easily do the same thing as Sasha or Merlin."

"That's because I learned a lot!" She shrugged, smiling, watching the same clouds as me. "I couldn't cast the most straightforward spells, so I was not really supervised. I tried, tried, and tried, learning as much as possible... Now, that effort I put in then is paying off. Merlin and Sasha? No... Leon, they would be considered talents that any Emprie would keep a secret."

"Huh... Well, aren't I lucky then?" I asked with a hearty laugh, making her chuckle. She was about to answer me, but we both stopped, turning our heads toward the sky. "I jinxed it, didn't I...?"

"It... seems like it..."

Me and my mouth. It was still in the middle of autumn, yet snow gently swayed back and forth in the slight wind, slowly dropping from above us and landing right on our faces.