Runic Spell Casting (2).

"Teach it to me! Teach me how to capture souls!" Loki demanded as he looked at Nicolas indignantly since Nicolas had delayed teaching him about it for a few days already.

"I'll teach it to you, you nosey brat!" Nicholas said waving his wand for the first time as he looked at Loki with a frustrated expression.

"Why does it look like you don't want to, but you're doing it anyway?"

"It doesn't matter." Nicholas shook his head and diverted the topic by asking him a question, "Tell me, what do you think about how spells are normally cast?"

"We mould our spirituality into different geometric shapes and cause it to manifest different spells in various ways."

"If that's the case why do you think those random shapes of your spirituality are related to the spell in any way?" Nicholas asked with a smile.

Loki paused to think about the question he had never pondered in depth before, so he spent some time with his eyes closed, thinking about everything he'd learnt about magic.

'What use is making the shapes of spirituality?'

'How does it even summon a spell in the first place?'

'I mean I did create a spell that causes elements to focus into a needle and be launched but how did those runes create the spell? How do the runes that I engrave into various materials even give them the required effects?'

Loki's brows furrowed and he pinched his chin in between his fingers as he thought about all that he'd ever known about magic.

Suddenly a stray thought shot past his mind-

'Didn't Salazar Slytherin's book say Rowena Ravenclaw created magic?'

A few thoughts in his mind connected and a spark lit up his mind as he came up with a corresponding theory making his brows furrow further.

His thoughts on the issue were simple.

'Perhaps the runes are just symbols of various Gods and Goddesses?'

'And wizards giving out their spirituality in hopes of performing magic is just a simple initiation of a ritual?'

'In simpler words, someone makes a symbol using their spirituality and this starts a ritual that is directed towards a particular God or a Goddess. And when the Gods and Goddesses bless the ritual the corresponding magic happens after combining the effects of them all.'

So Loki spoke calmly, "Is it because the respective Gods and Goddesses bless the particular ritual of forming a shape with the help of spirituality that magic occurs? Like they are notified when a symbol from their domain is formed and then they bless with the corresponding magic?"

Nicholas gave a wide smile in response.

"You are right. But can you give me some proof about this happening?"

"Proof?" Loki felt stumped, 'How does one prove this?'

'But since he asked, there must be something that I've missed about it all.'

Loki thought for a while and happened upon a thought.

'Why does this complicated system of magic need to exist in the first place?'

'Why do Gods and Goddesses need to bless people performing magic for various effects to happen?'

'Ah…didn't Salazar say it was to build an army of powerful humans against 'Her'?'

'So it was built to fight outer gods.'

'Gods…?'

'Wait a second. This world doesn't have any temples for Gods and Goddesses, even Angels, Saints and Demigods, is it because of this?'

'Because when a person performs a ritual that corresponds to multiple Gods and Goddesses, 'Their' blessing the ritual is akin to 'Them' having anchors?'

'So not only is it to allow humanity to defend against Outer Gods, but also to maintain the mental stability of True Gods!'

'It gives them a connection with humanity and allows them to be able to fight off the corruption of the will of the Original Creator.'

Loki suddenly felt like he'd just happened on something big, causing his pupils to shrink as he paid full attention to the words that left his mouth next.

"One of the proofs is how True Gods, Angels, Saints and Demigods don't need any religious anchors to maintain their sanity." Loki said.

Nicholas's smile only widened as he clapped his hands together.

"You're right, well mostly. But this is precisely the reason why magic works because Gods and Goddesses need anchors to maintain their sanity."

"In what aspects am I wrong?"

"You are wrong in one way, that is demigods, saints and angels don't know about this. Only True Gods do." Nicholas said in a soft whisper. "Well, except me and Prenelle."

"Huh?" Loki immediately remembered Walburga telling him how no one knew how magic worked, but then he looked at Nicholas, "But, how do you know so much about this then?"

"Hahaha~ Isn't that a great question!" Nicholas laughed as he looked at Loki with a happy smile and spoke, "It's because I've met a True God who kindly explained everything about it."

"...That sounds like an excuse. I can take it if you don't want to tell me the real reason, but don't lie to me, I'm not a child." Loki complained.

But Nicholas just laughed, "I was like this when the True God I met told me about it too, but forget about that, let's move on to what I want to teach you about."

"No!" Loki stopped him, "You've to tell me how do Demigods, Saints and Angels maintain their sanity if they don't know about this method!?"

"That's a good question." Nicholas nodded and then explained, "They all perform rituals directed towards the True Gods of their pathways to maintain their sanity."

"Huh? That barely answers anything!"

"Well you aren't wrong, but that's about as much I know. I'm not a True God and that's why I don't know how they keep the sanity of those in the pathway below them but this is what happens, since I do it myself, I and Prenelle pray to the True Gods of our pathway each day."

"...but then what about those pathways that don't have a True God?"

Nicholas looked at Loki for a few seconds and then with a serious expression explained, "There aren't any pathways like that."

"..." Loki's mouth opened in confusion.

"Well I'd be wrong to say there aren't any pathways like that, since the Spectator pathway does not have a True God yet but your Headmaster is an Angel of the pathway, but he is unique and can maintain his own sanity by simply imagining himself to be sane-"

Loki saw Nicolas take on an unwilling look before he heard him utter a few new strange words-

"-And his situation is rather weird and unique which no other people can repeat reliably."

"What about the rest of the pathways!? They all have True Gods?"

"Well most of them do, the few that don't, only have Beyonders in them that reach up until mid-sequence, or in some cases, the pathways have been hijacked by outer deities who do similar things to maintain the sanity of their demigods, saints and angels."

Loki suddenly felt as if he'd been delivered a shock.

This was too much information that had been dropped on him at once.

'But wait…'

'What about the True Creator and his gang of believers that run around in Knockturn Alley!?'

'Couldn't that be counted as 'Him' having anchors?'

'...no, I doubt so little would be of any real help since even if we took into account the entire world there are probably hardly going to be any more than a few hundred followers.'

'Even that is a rather large estimate since if they really were so powerful they'd have already taken over much of the wizarding world…'

'Yet the True Creator's name is not even known. Even Professor McGonagall didn't find it important enough to tell me until I brought up the matter with her myself.'

'But how has no one figured out about this if it is so easy…?'

'And why does it all seem so familiar?'

________________________________________________________________________________________________

A/N : Join my Patreon (p@treon.com/hooin_kyoma_au) to read 20 chapters ahead for just $3.