World of Agatha - 12 A Long March

Through the treetops ran a terrified wolf. He and what remained of the pack were nimbly jumping across massive distances. And while the branches at this hight were really thin, it mattered not for the creature’s movements were light and graceful, even at this terrifying juncture.

His most recent hunt turned out to be disastrous.

From a very young age this individual had distinguished himself by his great speed, endurance and even cunning. The females on the pack competed to mate with him and, when the hunt was over, this alpha was always the second to eat. Only being preceded by the pack leader himself.

But now, even this great predator was running for his life, alongside the rest o the disarrayed group, while the said leader was long dead.

This wasn’t battle, it was a massacre.

“Earthly brown monster. Bad prey. Bad idea.” Thought the wolf.

Crack!

A large hand grasped at one of the wolves lagging behind, crushing it relentlessly. With a “splat” the poor creature was dead without even being able to growl.

…..

The rainforest was majestic and beautiful to watch. It was hard to understand just how exactly so many different organisms could call this place home. Throughout her journey, Morgana witnessed many wonders. Big spiders, small frogs, tree inhabiting wolves and even flying monkeys.

It surprised her, however, the uneventfulness of this travel.

After fighting with Saci, Morgana believed this world would be full of similar challenges.

Of course, she didn’t spend three days only to pack her belongings before leaving the base.

No. Just as important was the planning. Many countermeasures were crafted so she could survive confrontations against even the strongest adversaries.

But, as vast and rich as this forest seemed, so far Morgana had not found a single opponent worth taking seriously.

In fact, her personal intervention was only required once. And even then, she only did it to make sure her property wouldn’t be damaged. Most of the time, however, the golems could handle all obstacles by themselves.

The unique environment also got old very quickly and Morgana would find herself bored looking at it.

Fortunately, there were many things to occupy her mind. Even though the laboratory was destroyed, all data had been fully preserved in a series of books that Morgana wrote herself.

This was a good opportunity to analyze them and see how the evidence interacted with her hypothesis, all the while creating new ones through observation.

Another activity was the study of actual spells. Morgana had, at this point, a very good understanding of how. formulas worked in Agatha.

What people call “spells” are nothing more than magical formations and constructs manifested through the mind or the physical world. The more complex and elegant the formation, the more powerful the end result tended to be.

Energy was important of course, but even a complete idiot with lots of money in Griseo could buy crystals or hire someone to loan him mana. But only masters with equivalent prowess could build and keep such structures on their minds.

Morgana had deciphered a lot of this world’s magical laws, but could she wield this newfound power in the heat of battle? Maybe not. After all, it’s not always that you have the chance to inscribe the spells beforehand.

“If only I could create magical scrolls, things would be much easier.”

When a spell formation was crafted on mundane items, it would degrade very rapidly, becoming useless. It was only practical to do so when the battle would happen very soon after, just how Morgana did it against the Bat King long ago.

However, it was a different story, if you had the right materials. Scrolls were a popular choice, but you needed both magical parchment and ink to make them.

There were many options.

For instance, while light wizards liked to use materials like treant’s bark, unicorn hair and sacred ambrosia on their works, practitioners of the dark arts usually favored the use of skin and blood, which suited more the cruelty and taboo their spells embodied. The more powerful the creature from which it originated, the better would the end result be.

But, since all of this was out of the reach for Morgana and it was never good to depend too much on single-use items, she had decided to practice using this modified magical language on her mind.

It took her a while, but after some initial problems, she managed to become proficient in those mental exercises. She wasn’t as good, as she had been in Griseo, but It would certainly do just fine for now.

…..

Three weeks had passed and on the carriage sat a strange wolf with deadpan eyes and staring at him was Morgana.

Her dark eyes gleamed purple with ancient wisdom and the creature in from of her quickly submitted, laying down helplessly.

But the wizard wasn’t satisfied.

“Huh. This isn’t good at all. I forced the formation, even going as far as pouring twice the normal amount of mana into the spell, yet this canine just barely yielded to my will.”

Morgana thought in annoyance.

“Should I device a new charm from scrap?”

If magic was different in Agatha, it was only reasonable to believe creatures here might not have the same thought process. So maybe creating a completely different kind of charm spell would be the most effective way to act.

But just as she was considering what to do next, Mordred sent her a telepathic message.

“Hmm. This ought to be interesting. Let’s check it out, but carefully.”