Never Die Villain

"First comes mana circulation. Mana is drawn from your Circle and circulated through the pathways necessary for the spell you intend to cast. How much you draw, how quickly you circulate it, and how well you maintain control during that process already determine a great deal about what happens afterward."

Professor Hakon drew an arrow leading to the next stage.

"Then comes construction. The formula you’ve learned gives that mana structure, but the spell does not immediately appear in reality simply because you’ve arranged it correctly. The completed construction is first painted within your inner realm."

A few more pieces of chalk scraped against paper around the lecture hall.

"That image might exist for less than a second in a spell you’ve cast thousands of times, but it is there. Your inner realm interprets the construction, your mana assumes the properties demanded by it, and only then can the spell cross from something existing within you into something that exists outside you."

He added another arrow.

"Finally, output. The completed spell manifests using the mana you’ve supplied, at which point whatever you’ve constructed becomes an observable magical phenomenon. Fire burns, ice freezes, force moves matter, and so on."

Professor Hakon stepped aside, revealing the sequence he had written across the board.

[Mana Circulation → Construction → Inner Realm → Output]

"Of course, this is still a simplified model. Each of these can be divided into several smaller processes, and scholars will happily argue over where one stage technically ends and another begins."

He set the chalk down.

"For Practical Casting, however, this is enough. Because once you understand that casting isn’t one action but a sequence of processes occurring extremely quickly, you can start identifying exactly where you’re slow, where you’re inefficient, and where everything falls apart when someone puts a sword against your throat."

Then, Professor Hakon’s attention moved across the lecture hall until it eventually settled on a certain student.

"Belozersky. Please, step forward."

"Uh?"

Ilya looked around as though there might somehow be another Belozersky sitting nearby, but with everyone already turning toward him, he reluctantly stood and made his way to the front.

Professor Hakon waited until he was standing beside him before addressing the class again.

"A fun fact. Of everyone in this class who took the Magic Department’s entrance examination, Belozersky here recorded the highest score in mana circulation."

"...?"

Ilya glanced at the professor. He hadn’t even known the individual results of the examination were available to faculty, much less that his score had been the highest among the students currently sitting here.

"Mana circulation is usually one of the first things we teach aspiring wizards, which unfortunately means many students eventually stop treating it as something worth improving."

Professor Hakon gestured toward Ilya.

"But faster circulation means mana reaches the rest of the casting process sooner, while greater control means less of it is wasted along the way. Even a difference of half a second becomes important once two people are trying to cast against each other."

He turned toward Ilya.

"Belozersky, cast something simple. A basic Light spell will do."

"Here?"

"Unless you’d prefer the hallway."

"...No, sir."

Ilya raised one hand.

Mana immediately flowed from his Circle, passing through pathways that had become familiar over the past several months. The construction painted itself within his inner realm almost as soon as he formed the intent, and a small sphere of white light appeared above his palm.

Professor Hakon watched closely.

"There. Did everyone catch that?"

Most of the class remained silent.

Garen raised his hand.

"No, sir."

A few students laughed.

"Good. That’s the point." Professor Hakon looked back toward the class. "His circulation started the moment he decided to cast, and there was very little fluctuation before construction. For a student who has been formally studying magic for less than a year, that’s unusual."

Ilya lowered his hand, causing the light to disappear. Professor Hakon crossed his arms.

"Now, Belozersky, the interesting question."

"Hm?"

"You circulate mana exceptionally well."

His eyes narrowed.

"So why is everything after that so strange?"

Ilya had only started learning magic nearly half a year ago, and most of that time had been spent studying alone or under Vera, so whatever habits he had developed simply felt normal to him.

"What exactly is strange about it, sir?"

"The transition after circulation." Professor Hakon pointed toward the sequence he had written on the board. "Your mana circulation is excellent, and your construction itself is stable, but the moment the spell reaches your inner realm, something changes."

Ilya glanced toward the Light hovering above his palm.

He couldn’t tell what Professor Hakon had noticed, although that wasn’t particularly surprising. He had never developed much of a reference for what another student’s casting was supposed to feel like.

"Am I doing something wrong?"

"Wrong? No." Professor Hakon shook his head. "If you were doing something wrong, your spell would tell us rather quickly. I’m saying that you don’t handle the latter stages the way most conventionally trained wizards do."

"How so?"

Professor Hakon studied the light for another moment before gesturing for Ilya to dismiss it.

"Cast another one."

Ilya complied.

This time, Professor Hakon watched from the instant Ilya began circulating mana until the Light manifested above his palm.

"Again."

Ilya cast it again.

"Hm."

Professor Hakon’s interest seemed to grow.

"You really don’t notice it, do you?"

"No, sir."

"Interesting." Professor Hakon crossed his arms. "Can anyone tell me what was strange about Belozersky’s casting just now?"

The room fell quiet as everyone tried to think back to what they had seen. From their perspective, Ilya had simply cast Light several times in succession, and aside from how quickly his mana began circulating, there hadn’t been anything obviously wrong with it.

Eventually, a student near the front raised her hand.

"His construction was too fast?"

"No. His construction speed was good, but nothing exceptional."

Another hand went up. "He skipped the incantation?"

"For Light? Half of you should be capable of doing that by now."

A few students lowered their heads at that. Professor Hakon waited a little longer, but when nobody offered another answer, he pointed toward Ilya.

"He doesn’t separate construction from application."

"...?"

Ilya’s eyebrows rose in confusion.

"Most of you were taught to construct a spell first, manifest it, and then direct the result toward whatever you intend to accomplish. Naturally, with enough practice, those actions become extremely close together, but the distinction remains."

Professor Hakon gestured toward Ilya’s hand.

"Belozersky is already deciding the spell’s position, direction, and immediate purpose while it’s still being painted inside his inner realm."

He looked toward Ilya.

"Cast Light again, but put it behind me."

Ilya raised his hand, and a sphere of light appeared behind Professor Hakon immediately.

"Now above Larssen."

Another sphere appeared over Henrik’s head.

"Under that desk."

The third appeared near the floor.

Professor Hakon nodded. "There. Each time I changed the target, he incorporated the destination before output. He isn’t manifesting the spell beside himself and then moving it where he wants it. As far as his casting process is concerned, where the spell appears is already part of the spell."

Ilya looked down at his hand.

He had never thought of it that way. If he wanted fire somewhere, that was where he imagined it forming, and it had never occurred to him that there was anything unusual about doing so.

Professor Hakon seemed to arrive at another possibility, although the way he looked at Ilya suggested he wasn’t entirely convinced of it himself.

"Could it be...?"

He stepped closer and leaned down, lowering his voice enough that the rest of the class wouldn’t hear.

"...Have you formed a Domain already?"

"...!"

At that moment, Ilya felt his heart skip a beat.

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