The Key to Mastering Magic is... Breathing?

"Ab manō fulmar ferrit elle fulmare cun manō modeo"

A bolt of lightning shot out of Ayumu's hand and struck a training dummy. The target shook as the thunderbolt slowly dissipated.

Ayumu was currently undergoing magical training in the courtyard of Berion Manor. It was one of the many training sessions he had had in the past two weeks. In that time, his understanding of magic had improved by leaps and bounds.

Now, Ayumu truly understood that magic was a complex system with many factors determining a given spell's success.

Take for example a simple incantation: Ab manō igne. If you literally translated it from Spiritspeak, it would mean something along the lines of 'from hand, fire.' Pretty simple stuff. 

However, things got interesting when you started playing around with the order of words. 

If you reversed the incantation, you would end up with: Igne ab manō. That roughly meant 'fire from hand'. At first glance, the meaning was the exact same, but the difference between the two incantations lay in their nuance.

The first one was focused on the origin of the flame—the hand. This highlighted the movement of the fire from its source. Meanwhile, the second one, while retaining the information about the fire's origin, was more focused on the existence of the element without implying any particular action. 

If that nuance was to be properly conveyed in our language, then the translation would differ. The first one was closer to 'fire launches from the hand', while the second one meant 'fire that originates from the hand'.

As a result, the first incantation made it easier to launch the spell faster, farther, and with more precision. On the other hand, the last one allowed the caster to more easily fine-tune the fire to fit their needs. For example, change its temperature, quantity, and other variables.

And that was how a small change in word order could have a significant impact on a spell.

Spellcasting was incredibly varied, and everyone had their own weaknesses and strengths. Lucy, for example, couldn't string together more than two or three words but could still achieve impressive results with just pure enhancement, strengthening, and acceleration spells.

On the other hand, Maria didn't like enhancing her body. The reason for that was pretty simple. No matter how much stronger or faster you became—if your coordination was originally poor, it would still remain poor even after using magic.

And Ayumu definitely had a weakness of his own. While he wasn't as poor at it as Lucy, who literally couldn't even make a complete sentence in Spiritspeak, he wasn't very good with longer incantations. Essentially, if the spell was more than a single relatively simple sentence, he constantly failed his casts. Specifically, his success rate was bellow ten percent.

For the uncounted time today, he visualized the thunderbolt.

A bolt of lightning strikes. After its released, I control it with my hand. With every motion I make, the spell follows, hitting my enemies repeatedly.

His goal was control, and his target was a training dummy that stood in the courtyard. Ayumu pointed his hand forward and voiced an incantation.

"Ab manō fulmar ferrit... Elle fulmare cun... manō modeo."

In response to Ayumu's cast, a lightning weakly struck the dummy. Then, Ayumu swung his hand, trying to redirect the lightning to hit the target again. But no matter how much he did, nothing happened. After all, the spell had already disappeared right after it struck the dummy.

The spell he was practicing was a variation of controlled projectile spells that utilized roaring flash. Controlled projectiles were a type of spells that helped deal with ordinary projectiles' main weaknesses: low uptime and high mana costs.

They allowed the user to control and maintain the released spell for as long as they wanted, given that it wasn't destroyed in the process. Of course, controlled projectiles cost more mana on launch and also consumed energy while being maintained, but the mana hit paled in comparison with launching many projectiles in a row. And in addition to that, not having to recast the incantation made the time window between each attack so much shorter.

But not only was Ayumu's magic not controllable, it also evaporated immediately after the initial collision.

"Damn it!" Ayumu shouted as he looked back on his cast, "I was confident I got it right this time..."

In the past two weeks, Ayumu had worked hard on his pronunciation as well as controlling his coloration and visualization. Gone were the times where he garbled words, and his overly eager imagination made spells go haywire. He was confident that those aspects weren't the root of his failures.

While Ayumu was trying to figure out the problem, Maria stood quietly to his side. She was also analyzing Ayumu's previous spell and trying to come up with some useful advice. 

After a sizable think, Maria finally came to a conclusion. Despite Ayumu fixing all of his previous issues, there was one area where he was still lacking: the flow of the incantation.

"You need to work on your intonation," Maria started.

His fiancée's sudden words took Ayumu out of his reflection, and he turned towards Maria.

"My intonation?" the boy asked.

"Yes, your casting lacks overall cohesion. It's closer to a series of words than a singular sentence."

When casting magic, it was important to pronounce the spells evenly. The intonation itself served to connect words with each other. Even if the pronunciation was correct and the image was right, as long as intonation failed to tie the words into one coherent sentence, the spell was as a good as a bunch of random sounds thrown together.

"A series of words? What does that mean?" Ayumu replied, trying his best to wrap his head around her advice.

"In other words, I think your incantations are lacking in rhythm," Maria added after a bit of thought.

"Rhythm?" Ayumu echoed her.

"That's right. When the casts become long, you either start rushing your words, hurrying to squeeze out the spell in one go, or do the opposite and take long pauses in order to catch your breath," Maria explained, "instead, you should keep an even pace throughout the cast."

That made sense to Ayumu, and he muttered in thought.

"An even pace, huh...? How would I even practice that? Just keep doing incantations over and over?" he asked with a hint of trepidation.

Ayumu wasn't too keen on mindless repetition. Whenever he practiced like that in his previous life, he never felt that he was improving. Thankfully, Mary had another solution in mind.

"No, there is actually something much simpler that you can do," Maria answered, "you just need to learn how to breath with your abdomen."

"With my abdomen?" Ayumu furrowed his eyebrows in thought. That sounded weirdly familiar to him.

"Yes," Maria nodded, "Breathing with your stomach can make your respiration much more even which will, in turn, allow you to recite spells with less interruptions."

"Oh. I've heard about that somewhere." Ayumu nodded.

Ayumu had definitely been told that in his previous life. What he couldn't remember was when he had heard that and who was it that told him. While he furrowed his eyebrows in thought, Maria continued.

"Yes, that's what a lot of performers and singers practice. Well, mages too. There is even a legend that the first mage to use complex cast was a singer who was fascinated by spirits. She wanted to sing in their language, so she created her own melody. That melody ended up transforming into a powerful spell," Maria explained.

"I see..." Ayumu muttered with deep interest.

"Although, which bits and pieces about the legend are true or false is a bit iffy," Maria added and smiled wryly.

While Maria told him about the myth, Ayumu was finally able to remember where he had heard about abdominal breathing before. 

It was back when he just started middle school. Back then, he was in the drama club. He got so nervous before every performance that he would screw up every line. His breathing would become constricted, and his words would always come out as a garbled mess. That's when the coach told him to breath with his stomach. He explained that it would help him relax and deliver his lines more naturally. 

Sadly, Ayumu was never able to master the technique and quit the club a few months after joining. Right now though, he was secretly wishing that he had paid more attention back then.

"What was it like again...?" Ayumu said as he touched his abdomen. He was making sure that his stomach moved with every breath.

"Ab manō ferrit fulmar!" Ayumu shouted. "Hmmm, it still doesn't feel any different... Is this really supposed to help me?"

He understood that abdominal breathing was meant to be useful, but despite his best attempts, he noticed no change in his spellcasting.

While Ayumu kept shouting out spells and muttering to himself, Maria walked up to him and put a hand on his stomach.

"Make sure that only your abdomen and rib cage move when you inhale. And when you exhale, try to keep your ribs expanded," Maria explained.

"Oh, I see," Ayumu said as he took several breaths.

"When your stomach inflates, it makes it easier for you to take in air."

"Does it?" Ayumu asked, somewhat confused.

"Yeah, try shrinking your abdomen and inhaling. It's pretty difficult, isn't it?"

"Oh yeah," Ayumu said as he attempted to take in some air, "It feels like I'm blocking my own breathing."

Ayumu's face was the picture of focus as he breathed in and out repeatedly. Slowly, he felt that the 'secret' that had escaped him for over five years was finally being unveiled.

"That's why you need to make sure to expand your stomach when you're reciting spells. The muscle in your body that sucks in air gets restricted otherwise."

Ayumu didn't reply. Instead, he single-mindedly continued his practice. 

At first, he would fully breathe out while shrinking his abdomen. Then, he would put his hands on his stomach so that they were barely touching. After that he would breathe in while expanding his abdomen. As his stomach stretched, his hands would get further away from each other. Finally, he would slowly exhale, making sure that his fingers stayed disconnected for as long as possible.

"Oh, wow... This is pretty relaxing," He said in slight amazement as he stared at his slowly moving hands.

"It sure is, isn't it? Sometimes, I just practice my breathing when I need to calm myself down."

After a while, Ayumu felt he got enough breathing practice and started attempting to chant actual spells. While he spoke incantations, he made sure to employ the new breathing method.

"Ab manō fulmar ferrit. Elle fulmare cun manō modeo."

In response to his cast, a lightning struck the training dummy once again. But this time, it didn't disappear after the clash. Instead, it stayed on the target and followed the movements of Ayumu's hand. When he flicked it left, the spell followed; when he flung it upwards, the lightning rose in the air; and when he swung his hand downwards, the bolt struck the ground, before finally disappearing.

"Wow!" Ayumu exclaimed. "I did it!"

"You sure did," Maria replied as she smiled at her fiancée.

The advice Ayumu got so long ago finally clicked. Suddenly, all of the things his coach had said in the past made sense to him. 

For a second, Ayumu thought about how it would have felt had he figured it out back then. Sadly, he had no way of finding that out. Instead, he decided to focus on what he could do now.

"Ok, let's keep going!" Ayumu said and prepared to cast the spell one more time.

"Ab manō fulmar ferrit Elle fulmare cun manō modeo."

As he finished his cast, the lightning released from his hand. But then, it disappeared after hitting the dummy.

"What!? I thought I had it!" Ayumu shouted as his face twisted in disappointment.

"Don't worry, you just got a little too excited this time," Mary said gently. "Remember to control your breathing." 

A wry smile blossomed on her face as she watched her fiancé.

"Control my breathing, control my breathing... Got it!" Ayumu said and began chanting once again.

Their training continued for some time. Many of Ayumu's casts still failed, but he felt like he was getting the hang of it. It was satisfying and fun. And most importantly, he felt like his goal was within reach.

At this rate, he was confident he would soon match Fabian's mastery in magic—no, that wasn't right. At this rate, he would become Fabian Aes Berion. He would become a genius mage, and a boy loved and trusted by everyone around him. That's where Ayumu's final goal lay.

There were two more weeks until the festival of Deos Cogitus. Ayumu believed he had just enough time to get the hang of prolonged cast. And with that done, he would truly live up to the title of genius mage.

***

Maria sat alone with a wistful smile. Pensively, she watched the nature in the courtyard of Berion Manor. The trees and plants were still colorful and lively. But as the seasons progressed, that would quickly change. The plants wouldn't remain this way for much longer.

Soon, the summer green would be replaced by orange and yellow: the golden Autumn would come.

Many people disliked Autumn. No one liked seeing vibrant greenery dry up and shrivel—witnessing the vibrancy of life succumbing to the cruel touch of reality. And Maria was the same. She used to dislike Autumn from the bottom of her heart.

But there was one encounter that made her distaste for the season slightly more bearable. Once, a person told Mary he liked Autumn. He said that its golden glow was gorgeous and that the plants only withered, so they could blossom beautifully in spring. And that all of them had Autumn to thank for their lovely bloom.

Maria reminisced about that day as she watched the greenery. The chilly evening winds were enveloping her, stealing heat from her body.

Fabian had long since left. Only Maria stayed behind. 

She told her fiancée that she wanted to enjoy the breeze for a bit longer. He was somewhat puzzled by that and offered to stay with her, but Maria declined.

The boy was so excited about improving his magic. Every time he would pull off a successful cast, he would smile like an innocent child. His passion for spellcasting was obvious to anyone. And every opportunity to improve was a happy occasion for him. 

Thinking about the boy made a wistful smile appear on Maria's face.

It was just like one year ago. Back then, she had also practiced prolonged cast with him. Back then, she had also taught him abdominal breathing.

And yet today, she had to teach him once again.

It was about time for Maria to return to the manor. The cold was becoming a bit too much for her.