30. Annihilation Magic
Shiro keeps training daily in magic and vitality manipulation. He hasn't succeeded in synthesizing divine power yet.
The idea of combining magic and vitality seemed like a brilliant design to Shiro, but when it came to actually using it himself, he sighed in despair—way too hard.
He never expected to have to control it mentally. There was no way around it: only practice and repetition would make it natural. He knew that, intellectually, but that didn’t make it any less painful.
“Honestly, until I can master divine synthesis, I’ve got no choice but to keep grinding the fundamentals—magic and breath techniques.”
That’s right. Shiro remembered how, in the past, he’d once thought playing flute or violin, or even vocal exercises, was impossible—only to eventually push through and manage it, simply by refusing to give up.
The sudden ability to produce a note out of nowhere.
He drew on that experience now, clinging to the belief that he’d eventually get it—just keep training, over and over.
“Alright, next up: multiple targets. There’s a pack of Dark Gray Wolves over there. Let’s try it out.”
“Yes, that should be perfect for training,” Mitoka agrees, and they head toward the pack.
When facing multiple opponents, use Annihilation Magic.
There are two types of Annihilation magic.
One is the explosive kind—represented by 【Fire Bomb】—akin to a bombardment.
The other is a barrage effect, achieved through multiple magic activations in parallel.
Explosives just need more magic power to increase damage, but it’s inefficient and messy for the environment.
The parallel activation method, on the other hand, requires either parallel thinking or multiple spirit contracts—neither of which are easy to pull off.
But then, it’s Shiro. Parallel thinking was something he could pick up with just a bit of training—had always been good at that kind of high-level mental work, anyway.
And since it turned out Mitoka could somehow manage an abnormally high level of parallel thinking—Shiro speculated, maybe because she was originally an AI? (—probably)—with her support, they could simultaneously cast around forty spells. Shiro himself could manage eight at once; Mitoka, thirty-two.
“By the way, Mitoka. Today, instead of our usual multi-casting, I’m thinking of trying something different.”
“Huh? How exactly are you planning to modify it?”
Mitoka was thrown by Shiro’s sudden shift in topic.
“Um… normally, multi-casting just shoots magic straight at the target. But this time, I want to test out two new methods.”
“Two?” Mitoka asked.
“Yeah. First, automatically stopping the spell’s activation using a timer.”
“A timer… to stop it automatically?” Mitoka sounded genuinely confused.
“Yeah. For example, when using Fire Needle, measure the distance to the target, calculate the travel time, then stop the spell just a little after the expected hit time. That way, even if it misses or pierces through, it won’t keep flying—and won’t cause unnecessary collateral damage. I’ve always thought about it: flying attacks are risky if there are allies on the trajectory, right?”
“I see… That could come in handy once we get actual allies. And efficiency-wise, it looks promising too.”
“…I’ll code the procedure. Yeah, how about we call it ‘Auto-Stop Attack Option’?”
“…Understood.”
So Shiro decided to test out the option.
"Um, I’ll register this option as a magic control feature. Let’s test it on that tree over there. With a regular Fire Needle, it should pierce through the trunk—so with this option enabled… "
Shiro muttered, activating the spell.
A line of flame shot forward, piercing the tree trunk—then abruptly stopped the moment it passed through, the fire vanishing instantly.
"Whoa, nice. Gonna make this the default from now on."
"Great idea, Shiro," Mitoka said, smiling.
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