Re: Love & Magic

“So, you chose Vernisia?” Touma asked with a smile seeing Zevien bringing Vernisia inside the lab.

“It was my choice,” Vernisia faintly smiled as she grabbed Zevien’s hand.

“Well then, let’s start,” Touma said as he gestured Vernisia to sleep on the bed before saying to Zevien, “bind her hands and legs. I’ll prepare the orb and bring the serums from the storage.”

Zevien nodded as he and Vernisia entered the glass chamber. Vernisia slept on the bed as Zevien cuffed her hands and legs.

“You are more worried than me, silly. I will pass through it without any hiccups. Don’t worry,” Vernisia said as she looked at Zevien.

“I will be here and will not let any mishap happen,” Zevien said as he nodded and kissed her before sitting on the stool beside the bed.

Touma arrived with the necessary items, after which he started.

After pulling out Vernisia’s magic eidos body in the physical form, he injected one serum into her physical body and another into her magic eidos body.

…

On top of a giant leaf with immeasurable distance and a colorful starry sky…

“Oh boy, no. I can not 100% predict this experiment’s result,” Euclion wryly said as he observed Vernisia and Zevien while sitting at a table on the leaf and eating something from a bowl.

Suddenly, an old man arrived and sat down at the same table. “Did Lunet’s experimental mind rub on you? What are you watching?” said the old man donned in a white robe with a big white beard and long white hair.

“Baishen?” Euclion turned to the old man before saying, “just take a look by tracing my consciousness.”

Baishen nodded as he traced Euclion’s consciousness. After five seconds, he raised his eyebrows and asked, “That girl has a higher amount of the Time Fruit’s power and your magic traces in her than the boy. What did you do?”

“First, I had to alter their destinies a bit with time rewind. But the Time Fruit’s power and my magic were consumed more on the girl since I had to change her entire life since she was born. Her line of past was altered to her being born completely fine without any disease. So in this experiment, where their consciousness is elevated, and their physical body gains access to magic labyrinths, something might happen related to the magic labyrinth and them,” Euclion said as he rubbed his chin, “can you guess what will happen, Baishen?”

Baishen caressed his beard as he thought of some possibilities and nodded, “if you calculated the possibilities, then we both know what will happen. That possibility has a 63% chance of happening.”

“It will be interesting,” Euclion smiled as two dimples appeared on his slightly pink baby cheeks.

Baishen looked at Euclion and shook his head with an amused smile, “don’t you want to do anything about your appearance? You can have an adult appearance if you go to the depths and find a way to remove this curse from you.”

“Humph, why do you think there’s no other option besides that?” Euclion’s baby face turned red with anger.

Baishen grimly smiled and shook his head, “you can’t defeat her. She is your nemesis. You should know this better than anyone.”

“But I will only accept this method! Her death will free me from this curse, and it will happen! For sure! Now don’t bring up infuriating stuff. I want to see what will happen to them,” Euclion snorted before focusing on Zevien and Vernisia.

After a while, the experiment ended as Euclion and Baishen looked at each other with smiles.

“Do you think this can happen again or be made official via some method?” Baishen asked. The thing that happened with Zevien and Vernisia in the experiment was very interesting.

“We just found out that the major factor of something like that happening is genuine care and love for each other, very interesting. I didn’t know Magia realm would adapt to that after entering phase 2,” Euclion grinned, “it will be exciting the next time they enter their respective magic labyrinths.”

“I’ll try to create a method to make what happened to them a regular occurrence,” Baishen said as he disappeared from the table on the giant leaf.

…

Inside the glass chamber, Vernisia had disappeared, but Zevien was still there with a dispirited expression, “It didn’t work. I couldn’t enter inside my second labyrinth again.”

“Well, but the experiment was successful,” Touma said with a smile before asking, “anyway, why do you want to enter again in the first place?”

Zevien shook his head, “just wanted to know the situation inside. You know there are now real people inside. Even though they suddenly appeared out of nowhere, they are real.”

Zevien then told Touma about what happened inside.

After hearing everything, Touma rubbed his chin and spoke, “what if you were a soldier and went to war for your country? I did. I went and killed people I had never met before. But that was war. However, that war was tied with benefits and was because of resources. What you did was a mistake of not taking the entire picture and consequences in your mind before making your move to get the riches. You don’t know what happened to that Henry guy, so don’t think too much about it and waste your time. When you go into the labyrinth next time, you can do what you deem fit after finding out the situation.”

“I wanted to do that today by entering, but I have to wait now,” Zevien sighed before shaking his head.

Touma patted Zevien’s shoulder once and nodded before leaving the class chamber.

Zevien waited for Vernisia, who appeared after over two hours with bruises on her left hand and a bleeding shoulder.

“What happened?” Zevien frowned as he waved his hand and used Somatic Happiness to heal her injuries.

“Ah, nothing. The last magic beast I fought with was strong. Anyway, I awakened a second magic labyrinth like you! And look, ” Vernisia said as she punched in the air, “my body is getting stronger after those motes entered inside my body like you.”

Vernisia grinned in excitement as she continued, “after entering, I focused on killing magic beasts by taking a task from the town chief since I wanted to make my physical body reach the same level as you. Now you can spar with me instead of the seniors at the dojo.”

Suddenly, she remembered something and asked, “did you manage to enter inside? or…”

“I failed,” Zevien shook his head before sighing, “I will have to wait for thirty days.”

Vernisia’s face also fell, and she hugged Zevien, “let’s be positive for now. You didn’t want them getting hurt or in trouble. Maybe they released him after kidnapping him?”

“I will save the magic crystals and those two items until then and exchange them for Henry if possible. I should have done this earlier instead of taking the risk. Sigh, I hope it’s not too late when I go next time.”

“Stupid!” Tarto suddenly appeared and said with flaring whiskers, “use the resources and items! It’s for you!”

“Don’t argue with me on this. I have decided,” Zevien frowned.

“Tsk, I didn’t want to reveal it but guess I have no choice now since you are making a stupid decision,” Tarto clicked his tongue before saying, “Henry is safe. I had already planned to save him from the start if something happened. He and his family are safe while the Ufar Merchant House no longer exists.”

“What! Really?!” Zevien exclaimed with a shocked and hopeful expression.

“Of course!” Tarto nodded before grinning, “but now, they are hellbent on catching you. The relatives of Leon in the capital city also want your head, so your next journey inside the labyrinth will be exciting, hehe.”

After saying that, Tarto disappeared.

After a few minutes, Touma arrived and was startled to know that Vernisia had awakened a second magic labyrinth.

“How?” Touma asked with confusion, “how is that possible? Could this experiment also awaken a second magic labyrinth for other people? No, no, no! We believe that Zevien awakened his second magic labyrinth because when Lopaz triggered his first magic labyrinth awakening, Zevien was connected to him. But if that’s the case, then how come Vernisia awakened her second magic labyrinth?”

“Hmmm….maybe because Lopaz didn’t awaken any labyrinth at that time while Vernisia has already awakened her labyrinth once?” Zevien guessed before he thought of something and said, “I think the special thing that triggered a second awakening is inside me. That special thing could also be the reason why my mana turned volatile when coming out.”

“What do you mean?” Touma asked as he didn’t understand fully.

“I mean, I awakened the second labyrinth because of my own power, and when I gave mana to Vernisia at the end, it also caused her to awaken her second magic labyrinth. Naturally, Lopaz also awakened his first labyrinth because of me,” Zevien said with a faint smile.

Touma nodded, “in the first place, there are no ingredients or effects in anything I used to make these two serums that indicated that it could help awaken a magic labyrinth. That’s why we were not willing to perform this experiment on Lopaz.”

“But you were willing to do it on Zevien?” Vernisia narrowed her eyes.

“Ahem. Everything went well, no? I felt that Zevien was special, so I knew he would make it,” Touma coughed as he said with a weak smile.

“Anyway, it’s confirmed that those two serums are perfected now,” Zevien said as he grinned, “you can pick a classless magician who has already awakened a magic labyrinth for the next experiment or rather, Magician Growth Boost. Let’s see if that person awakens second magic labyrinth without my interference.”

“Yeah,” Touma nodded, “that’s the only way to confirm whether you are right or wrong.”