Chapter 314: Asahi on Stage II (1)
“What is Magic?!”
With a loud bang, the words appeared behind her as Asahi shouted.
“Asahi, turn down the volume!”
“Asahi, you’re too loud!”
On stage, Asahi nodded enthusiastically, waving her hands to display the slides.
“Now then, let’s summarize what we currently understand! This is an information-sharing session!”
Ignoring the heckles from the audience and, of course, not lowering her volume, Asahi continued.
“Asahi is full of energy!”
“Yes, I’m full of energy, Older Sister!!”
The first slide displayed an image of a spear piercing what appeared to be an armor plate.
“This is footage from an experiment conducted by the adventurers of North End City, commissioned by the Aflarasia United Principality!”
The slide showed a recorded video of the experiment.
A test subject, marked with observation markers on various parts of their body, threw a raised spear. The spear was hurled with incredible force, striking the target—layered armor.
“Just like this! A completely ordinary spear with a bronze tip! But with the power of magic, it can easily penetrate even our proud armor!”
Eve gasped at the experimental footage. It was her first time observing such absurd (fantasy) analytical visuals in detail.
Until now, she had only seen things akin to monster battles.
“And now, one more thing!”
Asahi switched to the next slide, showing footage of another experiment.
“This is armor made from the material of the Big Moss! It’s an incredibly unreasonable material with extreme strength due to its fantasy properties!”
In the video, a similarly thrown spear penetrated the armor. However, unlike before, it stopped halfway through the tip.
The result was absurd (fantasy) as it showed that a biologically derived organic compound was stronger than the chemically superior layered armor. It was no wonder that Ringo and the other information intelligences, products of science, furrowed their brows.
“Even if we try to decipher the mechanism behind this, it’s exceedingly difficult, so let’s set that aside for now. What we noticed in this comparative test is about the spear’s tip!”
Asahi, growing more animated, switched the slide.
“The spear that pierced the layered armor maintained its sharpness! It should have collided with hard metals and ceramics, yet this mere bronze retained its shape—it’s quite baffling! However, with the Big Moss armor, the tip used here shows significant wear!”
An enlarged image of the recovered spear tip after the experiment was displayed. Indeed, the tip that had penetrated the Big Moss armor was crushed and appeared scratched overall.
“So, we conducted an experiment combining the Big Moss armor with the layered armor…”
The next footage showed that while the surface of the Big Moss armor was penetrated, the underlying layered armor was only slightly dented, deflecting the spear, along with an enlarged image of the spear tip.
“Remarkably! This time, the layered armor did its job! The damage was slightly deeper than calculated, but let’s ignore that for now!”
Striking a pose, Asahi shouted, “Magic can be countered with magic!”
With a dramatic sound effect, the air display flickered, and the caption “Magic VS Magic” appeared.
“The inhabitants of this planet use magic as if it’s the most natural thing! For instance, there’s a technique called ‘Penetration’—when used, no matter how sturdy the armor, it tends to be pierced!”
Using the Penetration magic, even a branch could pierce through steel plates without damaging the branch itself.
“However, this only applies to the phenomenon of ‘penetration’! If you use the Penetration magic to launch a slash, the effect is limited; while the point of impact may be damaged, it does not result in a cut! Thus, we’ve learned that the Penetration magic specializes in causing penetration, but does not add to the attack or impact power!”
“Hmm… So, it’s not simply increasing the power, is it?” Eve pondered.
“Yes, Older Sister, that’s correct! Additionally, it seems that the thicker and harder the material, the less effective the Penetration magic becomes! Penetrating a one-meter-thick concrete wall was quite difficult! But a wall of the same thickness made of earth was easily penetrated!”
“From that alone, it sounds like a matter of power…”
Asahi had apparently conducted numerous experiments under various conditions. Most records showed results proportional to the strength of the armor.
“What’s intriguing is when it comes to walls with self-repairing properties! This type is filled with a gel-like shock absorber in its internal voids, allowing it to seal up quickly after a hole forms, hardening upon reacting with oxygen in the air…”
This type of wall, despite the Penetration magic, suffered significant damage, resulting in large holes and cracks that clearly wouldn’t occur from a mere spear thrust.
“In the end, we concluded that this self-repairing armor, which should be much weaker than the layered armor, has greater resistance to the Penetration magic!”
“Regular armor gets holes, but this one is completely destroyed? That’s a strange effect for something called ‘Penetration’…”
“Exactly, Older Sister! Well, it’s still just a hypothesis, but it seems that the Penetration magic might be enhancing the target to withstand the penetration result!”
“…?”
Everyone tilted their heads at Asahi’s summary.
“What I mean is… The Penetration magic doesn’t enhance the power or hardness to allow for penetration; instead, it seems to strengthen the projectile to withstand the result of penetrating. The outcome comes first, and the phenomenon follows. Isn’t that an interesting hypothesis?”
The necessary strength and power to achieve the result of penetrating the target are conferred to the launched spear. Thus, to penetrate a self-repairing wall, excessive power is exerted because it must inflict damage that cannot be repaired.
“This means that even if the magic user doesn’t know what the target is, the power is automatically adjusted. Even when using a quantum random number generator to select the target, the necessary power is still exerted. I’ve conducted this experiment multiple times, so I’m almost certain of it!”
By the way, the quantum random number generator is a complete random number generator that produces different results even when given the exact same initial state. It’s physically impossible to predict the generated random numbers.
Despite being scientifically random, the Penetration magic correctly exhibits its effects. This means that magic is not bound by physical phenomena.
“So, if we were hit by an attack using that Penetration magic, our weapons would undoubtedly be pierced, right?”
“That would be despairing! However, it seems there are limitations to what can be done!”
As Asahi prefaced, it appears to depend on the magic user’s awareness.
“If there’s enough space behind the armor to hide another layer, even if the front armor is easily penetrated, the rear armor can withstand the impact. Alternatively, if the armor is thick enough, the magic user might experience symptoms of magic depletion, causing the spear to stop mid-flight.”
“…I see, magic power. If there isn’t enough magic power to cause that phenomenon, the result will be half-hearted.”
“Yes, Older Sister! And it seems that magic tends to interfere with other magic!”
Presenting the scientific analysis results, Asahi displayed the Big Moss armor once more.
“It’s based on a chitin structure, and while there were mysterious molecular structures observed, when separated from the Magic Stone, it’s about the hardness we expected! Physically, it’s not that hard! Since it’s originally soft, it can be easily penetrated when it collides with the Penetration magic!”
“Does that mean that the magic that hardens materials and the magic that penetrates them cancel each other out?”
“That seems to be the case, Older Sister!”
This chapter delves into the mystery of what magic truly is. To be continued.
When Asahi speaks, it tends to get lengthy!