The heavy front doors of the guildhall swung open.
Laxus Dreyar walked into the tavern, returning from his latest mission with his heavy coat trailing behind his shoulders. He was sixteen now, tall, and his face was locked into a permanent, brooding scowl. He stopped right in the center aisle. He gave a dirty look toward Natsu and Gray, who were currently rolling around on the floorboards in a petty argument. He gave them another dirty look, his scowl deepening as he watched them fight.
Laxus turned toward Merlin, who was sitting at the bar counter casually drinking a beer.
"I'm going to see Gramps to give him the report," Laxus said bluntly.
Merlin didn't even look up from his drink. He just lazily waved his hand, completely shooing him away like an annoying fly. Laxus scowled, turning on his heel and stomping up the wooden stairs toward the second floor.
Down in the dirt, Natsu scrambled back up to his feet, rubbing his pink hair as he stared curiously at the staircase.
"Who is he?" Natsu asked, looking over at Gray. "Is he strong?"
Gray scoffed, crossing his bare arms over his chest. "Don't even think about him. He is way out of your league."
Natsu's face instantly flushed with anger. "What did you say?!"
The short break was over. The two brats instantly started their usual Fairy Tail squabble again, pressing their foreheads together and screaming insults before tackling each other right back over the tables.
Erza was standing right next to Merlin's barstool. She had a complicated look on her face as she watched Laxus walk upstairs, seeing just how uptight the older teenager was. She turned toward Merlin, her eye filled with quiet determination.
"Do I have any compatibility towards any other magic?" Erza asked. "I want...something more."
Merlin stopped drinking, pausing as he thought about her question for a moment. A knowing look returned to his face.
"I have just the right type of magic for you," Merlin said, turning to look at her. "We'll start tomorrow. Meet me at the usual training spot."
Next morning, The sun was barely over the tree line the next morning. The backyard training ground was completely quiet.
Erza stood in the center of the clearing, her boots digging into the dirt. She held a plain, cheap steel short sword in her right hand, her posture stiff.
A soft rustle came from the bushes, and Merlin strolled into the yard, leaning lazily on his wooden staff. He walked up to her, reached into the loose sleeve of his white robes, and dropped a massive, heavy leather-bound book straight into her open hands.
The heavy book hit her palms with a dull thud. Erza looked down at the cracked leather cover. It was completely covered in dust.
"Master Merlin?" Erza asked. "What is this?"
"Your new training," Merlin said, leaning his chin on the gold top of his staff. "I call it Verbal Enchantment Magic. I structured the formula myself, taking a bit of inspiration from an ancient, high-speed casting style from old legends. Open it."
Erza carefully flipped the heavy cover open. The yellowed pages weren't written in normal text. The lines were crowded with strange, blocky, geometric symbols.
"This entire system runs on the absolute authority of the spoken word," Merlin explained, pointing a finger at the page. "Normal enchantment is a slow, tedious craft. A wizard has to sit down, focus their mind, and slowly guide their power into a weapon over hours. Verbal Enchantment completely bypasses that.
By chanting a full line of these specific, ancient characters at supersonic speed right during your swing, you are directly commanding the Ethernano inside your magic container. The language itself acts as the trigger, instantly binding the magic to the blade. When you practice this at a high level, the absolute authority of the chant can change the surrounding world, bringing natural disaster.
Merlin with the mischievous expression said. "and I know a super-scary lady on the other side of continent, who could bring down nation with her own brand of Enchantment magic.
"Really!" Erza said staring at the blocky characters " is this magic that powerful".
she was feeling the awe and excitement just from hearing the feats that this magic could achieve
"Yeah," Merlin said. "But to do that, you have to actually learn the alphabet first."
Merlin turned around facing the clear side of the field
"Watch," Merlin said.
He stepped past her, picking up a regular steel blade that was resting against a wooden crate. He balanced the hilt in his palm, taking a simple stance in the middle of the dirt yard.
He took a slow breath.
Merlin executed a fast downward slash into the empty air. Mid-swing, his mouth moved in a rapid blur. A single, heavy line of ancient, geometric words barked out from his throat like a sudden gunshot.
"𐀃𐀪𐀊𐀗 𐀡𐀩𐀗𐀿 𐀞𐀔𐀒 𐀓𐀫𐀏𐀗!"
The plain steel blade instantly turned into a roaring, white-hot pillar of pure fire. The heat tore through the open air, carving a deep, black, smoking line straight through the dirt yard. Merlin spun the sword casually, the fire vanishing as he tossed the blade back onto the crate. The metal wasn't even melted.
"The words focus the container," Merlin said, turning back to her. "If the chant is fast enough, the magic never even touches the physical steel until the moment of impact. Now, flip to the very first page. Look at that single blocky symbol at the top left."
Erza looked down at the book, her heart hammering against her rusted iron chest-plate. She looked at the first lone character on the page.
"That symbol makes a sharp, heavy sound," Merlin said, pronouncing it once for her. "Focus your container, swing your sword, and try to shout just that one sound perfectly."
Erza took a deep breath. She gripped her short sword tightly, her knuckles turning white. She swung the blade forward in a wide arc. She opened her container, forcing the raw magic to surge upward into her throat as she tried to shout the lone sound.
"𐀃—"
Cough!
The sound cut completely in half. Because she had zero experience with the language, her throat wasn't ready. The massive surge of Ethernano she pulled from her container hit her throat like a physical punch to her chest. The magic choked instantly inside her airway, the spell fizzling out into a tiny puff of grey smoke from the edge of her sword.
Erza dropped straight to her knees in the dirt.
"Cough! Cough-cough!"
She clutched her throat with her left hand, coughing violently as the backfire of the blocked magic tore the wind straight out of her lungs. Her face turned red, her chest heaving as she tried to get air back into her body. It felt like she had swallowed hot sand.
Merlin stood over her, leaning casually back onto his staff.
"Stop rushing," Merlin said calmly. "Your magic container is huge, but it doesn't mean anything if your throat and lungs aren't strong enough to act as the valve. You try to force the sounds without locking down the basic alphabet first, and you'll just choke on your own power."
Erza stayed on her knees, her breath ragged, but her fingers tightened hard around the edges of the dusty leather textbook. She pulled the heavy book tight against her rusted chest plate, her single brown eye burning with a sharp, stubborn focus. She didn't complain. She didn't ask to stop. She just stared at the very first symbol, determined to master it.