Chapter 348: The Approaching Crisis
"Kull told me you wanted to ask me about magic?"
Melian sat on a stone in the garden, looking at George, who had followed Lucien and Galadriel over.
The nightingales hopped and sang beside her, their songs melodious and beautiful.
In this world, the nightingales could sing, and their songs had been taught to them by Melian.
"The Queen is a divine being from Valinor. I wish to seek your guidance in magic, to further improve myself so I can face Morgoth's return."
George bowed respectfully to Melian, then explained.
Melian did not dwell on the matter. She stood up from the stone with a gentle smile:
"In truth, many of my abilities have existed within me since I came into being—just like how you know to eat and drink the moment you are born.
But because the Elves do not understand this, they perceive it as magic.
And I never truly taught them magic—I only shared my understanding of my own abilities. From there, they built upon this knowledge, gradually forming various forms of magic through spells and gestures.
Lucien and Galadriel have already learned most of what I've shared. If you wish to study, you can speak with them directly.
If their knowledge is not enough to satisfy you, then you may return and ask me again. I would be glad to share all that I know."
"I see."
After hearing Melian's words, George's mind worked rapidly, quickly forming his own interpretation.
The Valar and Maiar were divine beings born from the thoughts of Eru Ilúvatar, each possessing different powers. In his understanding, these deities mastered particular laws.
For example, Manwë, King of the Valar, governed the laws of wind, air, and all birds. Varda governed light, and Melkor governed darkness.
The laws governed by the Valar and Maiar, when combined, essentially constituted the laws of the entire universe.
Ordinary Elves and humans could not use these laws like the gods did. Unable to comprehend the knowledge within these laws, they had to imitate them through more complex means. That was the magic of Middle-earth.
Melian's laws encompassed plants, so with a mere thought, countless vines would rise from the earth to entangle her enemies.
But Grey Elves could not do the same. Like yesterday's Ellison—he needed to use spells and channel his internal magical energy to summon a few vines to aid in battle.
To put it in simpler terms:
A god who governed the laws of force could freely control the fall of an apple. If he demonstrated this to a highly intelligent human, that person might comprehend various formulas of physics.
Using those formulas and principles, he could construct machines to achieve similar effects.
Other humans, even if they saw the god's demonstration, could not understand it. But thanks to the guidance of the brilliant human, they could at least imitate the formulas.
Magic and those physics formulas weren't all that different.
The brilliant human would be akin to the founders of various magical systems, and in the Elven world, he would be one of the earliest Elves to grasp and wield magic.
Among the strongest were those like Lucien and Galadriel—who had learned all that Melian taught, though they had yet to fully absorb it or reach her level.
The less capable were like Ellison, who had only grasped the surface.
Looking at it this way, other worlds' magic operated on similar principles.
The reason he could now quickly comprehend and master any lightning-type magic was precisely because he had once, through Misaka Mikoto, touched upon the essence of lightning.
Having touched that essence, all forms of lightning magic and Taoist techniques that extended from it now seemed simple and clear.
However, he had only touched the essence. To truly master it, he still had a long way to go.
If he did master it, he wouldn't merely be at the sub-Father level. With his control over lightning alone, he would already be at Father level—able to shatter stars with ease.
If one mastered all the laws held by the Valar and Maiar of Middle-earth, they could gain the ability to create a single-universe reality, with power at least at the peak of single-universe level.
"From the looks of it, there's still a lot of potential to be tapped in Middle-earth!"
Of course, he also considered another point.
Different worlds likely had some differences in their fundamental laws—but not drastically so. Their core natures wouldn't be too far apart.
Collecting magic of the same type from different worlds would most likely help him better understand the essence of that type of law. This was his unique advantage.
Take light, for instance. Fairy Tail had light magic, the Harry Potter world also had it, so did Cardcaptor Sakura's world, and in Middle-earth, Varda herself represented light.
In a single world, to comprehend a law and ascend to godhood was exceedingly difficult. But combining the same type of laws from different worlds and drawing comparisons made the process much simpler.
Thus, in the following days, George mostly spent time with Lucien and Galadriel.
Lucien was easy to please. All George had to do was tell her a few stories, and she would readily share all her knowledge and even demonstrate her magic for him.
Lucien's most powerful technique was her enchantment spell. Hidden within her singing, it was impossible to detect. Anyone who heard her song would fall under its spell—even cutting off one's senses was useless.
George had experienced it a few times himself. Even with mental and psychic strength forcibly resisting, it was incredibly difficult not to be hypnotized.
The only way to break it was to interrupt Lucien's singing—to strike at her physical form.
Galadriel was more troublesome. The strong-willed Elven princess liked to spar with him. Only after losing would she be willing to calmly discuss magic.
Galadriel's magic wasn't as powerful as Lucien's, but it was far more varied.
Not only had she learned from Melian, she had also studied the teachings of Aulë through the Noldor, and the knowledge of light from the High Elves passed down by Varda.
However, her learning was too scattered. She hadn't fully digested it all yet, and many aspects remained immature.
But if given time to absorb and integrate all she had learned, her future strength would be formidable.
This was evident in the films—Galadriel, the future Elven Queen, had resisted the temptation of the One Ring and forcefully expelled Sauron with her own power.
Meanwhile, as George immersed himself in magical exchange within the Grey Elves' kingdom, waiting for their arrangements to return to Dothonion, he had no idea that his act of using fairy law to purge the darkness from the Valley of Death had already alarmed Morgoth in Angband.
A crisis was drawing ever closer to him.
(End of Chapter)