Jason clicked his tongue in slight annoyance as he heard Devon’s explanation, and Jason dived back into his thoughts as he tried to figure this out again. Jason had been hoping that maybe this was some other form of energy so that he would at least have a lead on where to go next. But not having any energy at all was too unexpected, and for a few long seconds, Jason was completely stuck on what could be happening.
The other people in the room all stayed silent, and they allowed Jason to run through his thoughts to try to find a reason for this. They all knew that Jason had far more experience with magic and mana than any of them, so even though the Gaia scientists had been stumped by this unexpected development, that didn’t mean Jason wouldn’t have some way to figure out what was going on. The silence in the room lasted for almost a full minute, but everyone shook when Jason’s head suddenly shot to the side! Jason stared at something on the ground with wide eyes, and Cerci could immediately tell that Jason had just discovered something! Cerci spoke up quickly.
"Jason. What is it? Did you find out what was causing this?"
"Shadow."
Jason muttered this with a look of realization on his face and Cerci’s brow furrowed in surprise as he asked Jason to please elaborate a little. Shadow wasn’t really going to help them very much! But Jason just put his hand against his face and let out a tiring sigh as he stared down at his shadow with complete focus.
Jason couldn’t believe he had missed something like this! Something that was so obvious that anyone else would’ve picked it up immediately! It was a power that didn’t have any energy readings, and it was powerful enough to repel any form of magical interference.
’This was done using an Arcane Art. I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out sooner. But which of the Arcane Arts is this? Is it the Arcane Art of Mind? System, is there an Arcane Art capable of something like this?’
Jason immediately looked towards the system for an explanation, and the system brought up a tab.
[Yes, the user is correct. The effects present in the minds of the Machina soldiers are very likely the result of a mental manipulation using the Arcane Art of Mind.]
Jason hummed, and he asked the system if it knew who the current wielder of the Arcane Art of Mind was.
[The system does not have this knowledge stored in its database. The last wielder recorded in the system’s database is a man named Jota Fran. He was a mage from the world of Calori in the second domain. But the records also show that Jota Fran was killed by an unknown assassin during a war ten thousand years ago. The system is incapable of tracing who might be the wielder of the Arcane Art now.]
Jason let out a calm sigh as he read all this, and Jason couldn’t help the slight disappointment he felt in his heart. Jason knew that things had just become a lot more difficult now that an Arcane Art wielder had gotten involved. Jason wielded the Arcane Art of Shadow, and he already knew how useful it was. Jason’s Shadow Art couldn’t be traced using any magical trackers, and it allowed Jason to travel significant distances almost instantaneously. It was probably one of the most useful skills in his arsenal! So Jason couldn’t even begin to imagine how dangerous an Arcane Art of Mind would be! This was a skill that could manipulate people’s minds without leaving behind even the slightest trace of magic! Anyone you knew could’ve been manipulated in one way or another, and you would never be able to guess what was going on until it was already too late!
’I’ve been neglecting the Arcane Art users too much. I have the Shadow Arcane Art, but there are other mages out there with the other Arts, and I don’t know if they’re friends or enemies. Right now, the Mind User is targeting me for some reason, but I don’t remember ever running into him before. I should’ve tried to gather more information about them before now.’
Jason frowned as he had these thoughts. Out of all the abilities in the known world, the Arcane Arts were probably the most dangerous, and also the least known. The only person who had spoken ot Jason about the Arcane Art was his father, and even with all his power, Jason’s father had warned him to be careful about them. People couldn’t really understand Arcane Arts because most people thought that you could only perform spells using magic! The shadow that Jason used all the time was a prime example! Even though Jason had never called it a magic spell himself, Jason had seen a wiki page about him on the internet, and he saw that people put his Shadow abilities under the magic spell category! It was just impossible for people to imagine him doing something like this without using magic!
So the fact that there were many more of these dangerous abilities out there that no one knew about, just because they didn’t require any mana to be used, was actually terrifying. If those abilities ended up in the wrong hands, the damage that could be done was unimaginable. And from the recent Machina attack, Jason could already imagine how dangerous the Arcane Art of Mind was.
’That white-haired man. I need to find out what he’s after. Did he send the Machina here for a reason? Or did he just use his abilities to prevent anyone from finding out he’s involved in this? And the other Arcane Arts users. Are they involved in this as well? System, how many Arcane Arts are there?’
[As of now, there are seven known Arcane Arts. They are: Shadow, Mind, Time, Reality, Space, Nature, and Light. These are the Arcane Arts which have either been discovered or possessed by a mage at some point in history. Out of all these Arcane Arts, the only Art that still does not have a wielder is the Light Arcane Art. The reason for this is because there are various criteria which must be fulfilled by a mage before they can possess this Art, and no mage in history has managed to fulfill them yet.]
’Seven. That’s a lot.’
Jason grimaced slightly when he saw just how many Arcane Arts there were, and after seeing the names of some of these Arts, Jason didn’t even want to imagine how powerful they would be! The Arcane Art of Mind could obviously manipulate the minds of others, but what about the Arcane Art of Reality? Could it shape reality and destroy it? Could the Arcane Art of Time manipulate Time across the entire Primordial Expanse? When compared to some of these Arts, Jason couldn’t help but feel like the Shadow Art was seriously lacking, but Jason also knew that this wasn’t true.
’The Shadow Art is extremely powerful, but there are criteria that need to be fulfilled before it can be used properly. My shadows don’t work in extreme brightness, and the [Land of Lost Shadows] can only create one absolute condition each time I use it. These are limiters that were placed on the Art for some reason. If the Shadow Arcane Art has these limiters, then it only makes sense that the other Arcane Arts would also have their own limiters. I’m sure there’s a way to bypass some of these Arts. Or at least, there should be a way to prevent them from using their Arcane Art. I just need to find out what those conditions are.’