第２７６堀：この舞台は２人のために (Part2)
Hearing that voice, I instinctively looked at the monitor in front of me, which showed myself, Labyris, and Amanda.
Had I been cast as the commentator without my consent?
『As expected of Yuki-san. To be able to deduce the circumstances behind the technique in that split second... But considering that, it’s truly absurd that Taiki-senshu could observe those movements in such a short time and replicate the technique perfectly just by watching.』
Exactly. As Eris said, it’s terrifying.
What kind of protagonist power is that? Well, I suppose he *is* a protagonist—at least in the eyes of myself and Taiki-kun.
Still, the conditions for mimicking it were all there.
Everything is an extension of mana manipulation.
Great [Sea-Severing] Slash, [Ocean-Severing] Slash, [Sky-Severing] Slash.
Each one involves altering the quality of one's mana to match the target, creating the perfect conditions to cut through it.
Now, here is the question: what exactly is the phenomenon of "cutting"?
Knowing or not knowing this has a massive impact on magic, where visualization is everything.
To begin with, cutting is related to the pressure and friction of the blade, as well as the tension of the object being cut.
There exists a formless cutting machine on Earth called a water jet, but that functions more by eroding than by acting as a blade, so I’ll leave that out for now.
First, there are roughly three types of cutting: pushing, pulling, and piercing.
Let’s start with pushing. This involves pressing the extremely small surface area of a blade against the material you want to cut, concentrating the force at a single point, and pushing into the material. It relies on the material's—if I may risk a misunderstanding—"tension," the force it exerts to return to its original shape.
If you press your finger into a soft ball or your own skin, you’ll notice it dents, but there’s a force pushing back.
When you press with a surface area smaller than a finger—like a needle—the burden on that single point becomes immense, exceeding the material's strength within a certain range, which literally causes the phenomenon of "pushing through."
Next is pulling. In cooking, you’re often told that when cutting meat, you shouldn't just push, but push and pull.
This adds the act of pulling to the conditions of pushing, utilizing the phenomenon of molecular adhesion to slice through the meat more easily.
Matter has the property of sticking to other objects.
It might be easier to understand if you dip your finger into water; naturally, water droplets cling to your finger.
In a sense, the act of pulling is tearing away a portion of the water that has adhered to your finger.
When you press a blade against something—at a molecular level, even a blade is jagged—it bonds with the material, and pulling it drags the object along, effectively slicing it.
Incidentally, the Japanese katana is a weapon that utilizes this "pulling" property to the absolute limit.
Finally, piercing. As explained above, this is technically classified as a "pushing" motion, but because it applies pressure to an even smaller point than a blade, it is easier to divide matter than the previous two.
By the way, "dividing" in this context doesn't necessarily mean visibly tearing an object apart, but rather creating a wound.
With all that in mind, the question becomes which type of mana-based slash is effective against a given spell.
The [Ocean-Severing] Slash I mentioned earlier is a "pushing" slash.
In other words, since formless magic that utilizes natural phenomena continues to exist even without mana, you must divide the phenomenon itself.
Take the Fire Storm Popuri used; it’s a mixture of fire and a tornado. The fire is oxygen, and while the tornado isn't a natural phenomenon in the traditional sense, it’s wind circulated in a circle. The control of this is fueled by mana and the magic’s formula.
Let’s leave the fire alone for a moment. Since the fire is generated alongside the tornado, you just need to stop the tornado.
Now, how do you stop a tornado?
If it were a real one, depending on the scale, it’s said you’d need to detonate dozens of nuclear missiles at its core.
However, Popuri’s tornado is just magic skipping the process—it’s the same as sticking your hand into a bucket of water and stirring it to create a vortex.
You could insert an unbreakable board to disrupt the rotation, cut off the energy supply (the mana), or slice the bucket itself to destroy the conditions required for the tornado to exist.
I’ve just shown three ways to stop magic through mana manipulation, and those are the very sword techniques Taiki-kun divided his skills into.
First, pushing mana directly into the target is classified as "pulling"—it requires technique.
You use brute force to cut into the material—in this case, the magic—and divide it.
That is the Great [Sea-Severing] Slash.
Next is the method of cutting off the source of the magic’s activation—the mana supply.
By seeing through the essence and shattering that single point, you collapse the magic.
This is effective against magic where the supply source acts like a battery.
That is the [Sky-Severing] Slash.
Finally, the technique Eoid mimicked: pushing.
Since formless magic is forcing a natural phenomenon to occur, if you break the "forced" part, it will naturally dissipate.
You are slicing through something that is being unnaturally held in place by mana.
That is the [Ocean-Severing] Slash.
All three of these involve looking at the flow of mana or the magic formula and physically "disenchanting" it.
But without first understanding *why* the magic is occurring as a phenomenon, the idea of "slicing" it would never even occur to you.
That’s why Eoid, through pure instinct, understood what the unnatural phenomenon happening before his eyes was, and unleashed the [Ocean-Severing] Slash.
"……That was a long explanation, but doesn't that mean Eoid actually has quite a bit of talent?"
"Yeah. Maybe focusing on his studies would be a good idea from now on."