Supreme Magus novel Chapter 2443

"That's because the root cause of our spells is our own mana and it does us no harm. The effects, instead are produced when the spells interact with the external world energy. They are like the ripples produced by a stone thrown into a lake.

"We have control over the distance the stone travels and the strength with which it lands, but not over the ripples that originate from the impact. Let me give you another example."

Lith raised his right hand, producing such heat that soon everyone had trouble breathing, he included. The same happened when he caused a frost wave that made his teeth clatter.

"See? In both cases, my body is unaffected by the change in temperature that fire and water magic produce but the same doesn't apply to the effect they cause in the environment around me. Any questions?" He asked.

"I have one." King Meron said. "During our visit to the Desert, when we discussed the terms of your ascension to Magus, you told us that fire and ice control speed. If water magic slows things down, then how come ice spells are second in speed only to air magic?"

"Excellent question." Lith gave him a nod of approval. "Yet once again, your confusion originates from mixing up cause and effect. Let me explain it to you with a practical example."

He put two glasses of water on either side of the King's desk.

"You are thinking this." A flick of Lith's finger created a trail of ice that reached the glass and froze the water it contained.

"Yet it's actually this." A wave of his other hand had the water in the other glass freeze on the spot without affecting anything else.

"What my mana is doing is draining the heat by slowing down the movement of the water. The ice is just the visible effect. Ice magic is fast because it's actually my mana that moves until it reaches the destination and causes the effect.

"On the contrary, fire magic appears to be slower because the flames it creates behave like natural fire and devour oxygen. That's why Light Mastery does it better." A heat beam from Lith's finger punctured a hole in his own desk, spreading the smell of burnt wood.

"Using light instead of air as a carrier for the fire magic keeps it from wasting energy to produce flames and focuses its power in a single spot. On the other hand, however, mixing fire and air can create explosions, something that light can't do.

"But that's a lesson for another day. Any more questions?"

"Yeah. You said that we are mistaking cause and effect, but if the ice is the effect, then how come it doesn't hurt us?" A male student created a crystal shard that phased through his hand and yet pierced through his desk.

"Because that's not external ice but your own." Seeing the confused expression on his face, Lith rushed to add. "Let me show you the difference." _{freewebnøvel.com}

Lith opened both of his palms but while an ice shard similar to the student's formed above the left hand and floated there, another formed above his right hand, falling to the ground and shattering into smaller fragments.

"That's ice conjured by my cold." Lith pointed at the fragments with his free hand. "This, instead, is ice conjured by my own mana."

"There's a difference?" The student asked in confusion.

"Okay, let me ask you a few questions. Does normal ice fly?"

"No." The student replied with a scoff at the apparent stupid question before realizing how short-sighted he had been.

"Next, do you use air magic to make your water magic spells fly?"