Chapter 138

Solomon and Impulse stood across from each other in the middle of an empty room. The room is oval, as big as a football stadium, and 40 meters tall. The entire room was pure white, with the ceiling giving out light. In the middle of the room was an oval platform in which Solomon and Impulse stood.

"Let's begin our lesson. But first, tell me what you know about magic." Solomon said, placing his arm behind his back.

"Magic is the power to harness the scraps of creation. Like the random errors in computer code, discarded and forgotten. Left to be picked up and used by those who also find themselves discarded and forgotten. Only mages, born with magic, can use these scraps of creation to bend reality at their will. The more magic you have, the more scraps you can control." Impulse said, summarizing his interpretation of magic.

"That is an... not what I was expecting." Solomon mumbled, turning around and walking down from the platform. "You are speaking of magic only Gods can use. But it was my fault. I asked you the wrong question. Explain to me what Magecraft is."

Impulse peered intently at Solomon's back before saying, "That is the only magic I know."

Solomon stopped in his steps, thinking of something. "I see..." He mumbled and continued walking. "Magicraft is merely the manifestation of things that already exist or occur in reality, albeit with a slight disregard for time and materials required. Phenomena not of this universe are impossible to reproduce. In order to create something, either another object must be given as a price, or an existing object is modified. The base of all Magicraft is the use of magical energy to produce something that either already exists or can exist."

"..." Impulse listened, letting out a long sigh. "You are a better teacher than Faust. He kept telling me to code reality or something. You just summarized that I have to give an equal amount of magic based on what I want to create. The bigger the creation, the more magic I give."

"Precisely." Solomon nodded, turned to face Impulse, looking at him from the bottom of the platform. "Demonstrate this magic you speak of."

"It is a basic magic you wouldn't like." Impulse said, not wanting to demonstrate the trash magic he spent three months learning.

"Go on. A teacher must know where his students stand to be able to teach them well." Solomon insisted, truly curious of Impulse's magic Impulse.

"If you say so." Impulse mumbled.

Taking a deep breath, he closed his he connected to his magic flowing through his body, moving it to his right palm. Opening his eyes, he pointed at his side, using the magic in his palm to shift and manipulate reality, causing a red magic circle to form in front of his palm. Making a gun signal, a red beam of lightning shot out the magic circle, traveling at supersonic speed and colliding with the wall.

Looking at Solomon, Impulse saw him staring at the magic circle with an emotionless look. Sighed, he clenched his right fist, the magic circle breaking and the beam of lightning disappearing into thin air. "I know, trash magic. Faust said it was the tinny dinner of spell casting."

'Magic... He used magic...' Solomon thought, all the nerves in his body becoming excited. 'How could a mare man use magic only assessable to the Gods. I can learn magic from this man.'

"What's wrong?" Impulse asked, seeing the blank look on Solomon's face.

"Nothing." Solomon quickly said, snapping back to reality. He said nothing and walked to the other end of the room before turning to Impulse. "Now, magicraft is performed through the assistance of magic circuit." He raised his right arm, multiple circuits like vain appearing on it.

Above his palm, a raging black flame appeared, reaching the ceiling before condensing to form a small black orb. He then threw it at Impulse, who didn't try to dodge it. It exploded into a big black dome of black flames, sending waves of hot air through the room. Solomon then pointed his left arm at the raging dome of black flames, more magic circuits appearing on his arm. Like a vacuum, his palm absorbed all the black flames, revealing Impulse still standing on the middle platform, both him and the room unscathed.

"Well, we can use as much magic as we wish without worrying about the room." Solomon said, not bothered that he just threw anti-army magic at Impulse.

"I want to learn that." Impulse said with a grin.

"That is going to be a problem." Solomon shook his head, placing his arm behind him once more.

"Why?"

"You use magic without the need of a Magic Circuits and from what I see, magic is created from your soul. I assume that this plane of existence makes you immortal, but once you leave, your soul would burn out, killing you instantly with no hope of revival." Solomon explained. Noticing the uninterested look on Impulse's face, he continued, "I assume you know that already."

"Yes, I do."

"Mana is everywhere, but to use it, you need magic circuits. And from what I see, you have no magic circuits." Solomon said, "Like you saw me demonstrate before. I absorbed the mana in the air into my body, used my magic circuits to transform that mana into Prana, before using that Prana to cast my spell. Do you understand?"

"Yes." Impulse nodded, "It is like the respiratory system. We breathe in air which our cells transform into energy, which we use to survive. Not like I need oxygen, but that about explains it."

"Exactly."

"Is there something I can do about my soul?" Impulse asked, bring the subject back to the matter with his soul.

"I will get to that. We mages also use our souls to cast Magic, but we call this type of energy Od. Like your soul, it burns out. But with the help of our Magic Circuit, we can passively regenerate it. Besides, once it reaches a point of killing ourselves if we keep using Od, our magic circuits stop us from using more Od, and force us to use mana till it is regenerated." Solomon explained, pointing at Impulse. "You... don't have any magic cirutes. And due to it being a bond to one's soul, you can't gain one. The good thing is the amount of Od you can use before your soul burns out completely is uncountable. Even I can't find the specifics, It is akin to a car moving 40,000 kilometers with only one liter of gasoline. You have enough Od to cast anti-world magic which is impossible till I meet you."

"So I have to spend the rest of my life manually absorbing souls to charge mine?" Impulse asked, not caring about the amount of Od he has.

"There is a way." Solomon said, quipping Impulse's interest. "But you have to become a human once more."

Impulse said nothing and kept listening on. As much as he hates the idea, this is a chance to get rid of his one weakness.

"I would extract your soul from your body and merge it with the soul of a human or animal with Magic Circuits. You and the other soul would fight for domination, and if you win, you will completely erase the soul and the now merged soul would be yours. You will gain magic circuits while still having the amount of Od, or even more." Solomon explained, staring right into Impulse's yellow eyes with his golden one. "But, you would have to spend time in that body before I, or someone else, would be able to return your soul to your original body."

"What is your choice?"