"Quick, start meditating, Cesar!" Julian said as he considered the theories behind the absorption of Magic Pentagrams.
"What? Are you crazy?" One of Vicente's men asked.
One of the teachers turned completely pale as he looked at Vicente and then said. "This should not have happened. But since it did, this is your leader's only chance."
The leader of these teachers clenched his fists tightly, seeing that there was nothing else for them to do. "Now that the pentagram has connected with him, he must absorb it successfully, or he will fail and suffer the consequences. Either way, the pentagram is no longer of use to others.
Until a pentagram is connected to a magician, others could absorb it. This worked for naturally formed pentagrams or even those developed in living beings. Although only the person responsible for the death of the being that created the pentagram would be advised to absorb it, others could try their luck, though their chances were practically nil.
However, once the pentagram was connected to someone, either by its own action or that of the magician trying to absorb it, it would lose part of its essence. This would make it unstable, and if that magician didn't absorb it, it would disappear after the absorption failed.
The teachers were aware of this. Even if they didn't like losing their target to Cesar, these men knew the only alternative was for their temporary ally to try to absorb the pentagram.
They were in a dangerous place, where there was even a 3rd stage being nearby. Losing Cesar would be dangerous for them all!
Now that the milk had been spilled and no one could change what was happening, the best outcome would be for Cesar to absorb the yellow pentagram successfully!
"But... But the body of..." Rory knew nothing about the second gem or the other pentagram Vice already had. Being familiar with the magical theories of this world, he was naturally afraid for his friend.
"I know. His body shouldn't be able to take it." Julian commented in a tense tone, speaking quietly not to attract the attention of the creatures guarding the other side of the wall from the area Vice had penetrated. "But it's too late now. Magic Pentagrams rarely connect with magicians of their own volition. But it can happen if the magician's compatibility with it is very high. In those cases, there's nothing to do but try to absorb it or lose it.
The literature says that such cases can happen with a certain frequency if the pentagram is created by special phenomena without the involvement of living beings. But there is no case of a person of a lower physical level than the pentagram. So..." He hesitated.
"So we don't know what will happen to Cesar if he fails." The strongest of the teachers said.
If it was someone of the same level as the pentagram, failure would only result in the loss of the pentagram, and at most, the magician would be exhausted and temporarily weakened.
But since Vicente was weaker than the pentagram, these teachers thought he had no chance of refusing such an essence. If he tried, the risks to his magic base and his body would be too great.
His situation was very different from the magical theory these men knew. That's why they thought that Vicente couldn't refuse the absorption that was beginning!
"Sigh... Magical Attraction really is a complicated thing. I didn't expect to see this here." One of them muttered as he saw Vice do as they advised, sit down, and start meditating to absorb the pentagram.
In a cold sweat, Vicente did as he was told. He sat in a lotus position under a metal plate he had created, agreeing with every word the teachers said.
'I will succeed!' He thought as his first pentagram from his first Magic Gem appeared, and the yellow pentagram was positioned above him.
As they watched, standing in the same places they had been a moment before, the men around Vicente looked at him nervously, tense for similar reasons while thinking of different things.
Vicente's men were terribly afraid that their glorious leader would die attempting this feat with no record of success.
Meanwhile, the teachers were also concerned about Vicente's fate and what it meant for them. But some of them couldn't help but take the time to observe and analyze rare phenomena.
For scholars like them, this was an opportunity to see the attempted absorption of a pentagram of a higher level than the magician's level. But it was also an opportunity for them to study Magical Attraction.
Magical Aattraction was a phenomenon that was generally very positive. It occurred when very similar essences became relatively close and connected with each other. This could happen with pentagrams formed by special phenomena, with Magic Gems, but also with precious artifacts.
As in the case of Magic Gems, one could connect to one of these essences and easily awaken their magical powers.
In other cases, this phenomenon could alert magicians or powerful creatures to the location of items of great value to them, which could greatly facilitate their journey to a treasure.
When the Magical Attraction happened, even if the magician didn't want to connect with such a thing, it would happen.
But because it was usually a positive phenomenon, magicians rarely took precautions to avoid accidentally connecting with a free essence.
That day, however, Julian's group witnessed a negative aspect of this phenomenon. It could happen if lower-level magicians were involved with higher-level essences.
And there were great risks involved!
If Vicente succeeded, he would gain a lot, but the opposite was also true. If he failed, he would lose as much as he could have gained by succeeding!
Julian recorded some of the things he had seen and felt in his mind, hoping to study them further when he returned to Ironcrest.
'If I survive this journey, I will seek out the scholar Atlas.' He thought as he watched the pentagram above Vicente slowly descend over this man's body and begin the integration process.
The leader of the teachers did the same, thinking about what he knew regarding naturally formed pentagrams. 'If Cesar were at the beginning of the 3rd stage, it would be effortless for him to absorb this pentagram.
Even people with low-level talent can quickly absorb pentagrams formed by natural phenomena because there is no will left in those essences. As long as you have more than 50% compatibility, you have almost a 100% chance of success in absorbing something like this.
But I have no idea what might happen and how long it might take Cesar to go through all the stages of absorption.'
He felt like writing it down, thinking that since he had lost the chance to fulfill his mission there, he could at least collect something relevant to send to the Seidel Magic College.
As he was about to take out a small notebook from his spatial ring, the expressions of the whole group suddenly changed as they felt a terrible aura approaching the chamber where the pentagram had been a moment ago.
