Chapter 73

Aidan rested his gaze on the trio of stone warriors and involuntarily took a step back. Instincts told him that it would be better not to cross the threshold of the room, because otherwise ... Before Aidan had time to budge, he suddenly bumped into an invisible wall. He turned sharply and his gaze wavered. A magical barrier appeared in front of him, transparent with many purple runes! It was a trap!

- Heck! - Turning around, Aidan immediately peered at the stone lifeless faces and after a couple of seconds exhaled with relief:

"It looks like they won't attack until I provoke them. Yes ... I guess it's a spear. They are just guardians. Aidan continued to examine these warriors. In fact, they did not stand out in anything remarkable, they just looked like ordinary statues. Two thin silhouettes on the sides of a two-meter big man. Even the muscles and faces of these stone statues did not stand out in any way, as if they were hastily created and abandoned. Some even had chips or a couple of holes in their bodies. Probably, someone still managed to injure them. But, they continued to hold their post, which means that no one made it through! Golems of this strength are no joke. Aidan feared things from antiquity, and especially when he felt such a concentrated aura of death from them. In all respects, this trinity is not alive, but these stones took hundreds of their lives with their weapons, if not even thousands. These golems may be useless, but their weapons are very dangerous!

So Aidan faced two setbacks at once, one was worse than the other ...

A week later, the guy moved a full meter to the statues and continued to build a picture of what had happened in his head. First of all, many footprints on the ground could tell about what happened in much more detail. On that day, Aidan first decided to use death magic, he already felt that the next burst would happen soon and there was no point in delaying. Just like feeling life, Aidan could feel the energy flows of the dead in this place. Unlike life, which was kept alive, death could be said to be everywhere. In fact, death and life are simply derivatives of Ether. Therefore, we can say the week was not so bad, Aidan began to delve even into his knowledge and made some conclusions.

"Ether is all magic, it is everywhere, but without life and death all things would not exist. At least creatures like humans and animals. It is logical, but ... Is there life on the planets engulfed in fire? Doubtful, albeit quite real. I think Igneel wouldn't mind. As I understand it, Ether is what everything in the world consists of, life and death, including time and space. Wizards simply use their abilities to get it in themselves and store it in a container. But, do they absorb the ether that created everything and everyone? Maybe so. From this side, perhaps it is the wizard himself, his talent and the magic he practices that affect the part of the ether that he can absorb. This means that it does not already absorb everything. Although, definitely Life and Death is not the weakest of his side. But, I know for sure that I do not absorb death, otherwise I would have long ago turned into God knows what ... So, I absorb a special kind of ether, available only to mortals? No ... I only absorb the required concentration and use it! " - Aidan's eyes sparkled, thinking about Ether when you know a lot is much easier.

"I take that very ether, some kind of neutral energy, and my magic transforms it from a container into the necessary energy for my spells: life, death, ice, and so on. Probably, nothing changes at the entry stage, but as a result of using magic, quite. The transformed ether is no longer so simple and affects the emotions of the magician himself and, as experience has shown, on the body. Ether is like radiation, only less harmful, in the right proportions ... As a result, over time, without proper control, magic can change the user and just one wrong outburst of emotions will lead to madness. This radiation changes a person, and as a result, he turns into a different version of himself. Probably, here, as with the third source, it is not worth creating something for which there is still not enough ability, otherwise ... Something like Zeref's fate is quite real. The years of the creation of the Aetherians have left their mark. It's just magic that made him immune to the stages of aging, and he is unable to die. Trying to kill yourself? How will his Contradictory Side allow himself to be destroyed? Although, it is possible that the matter is in this strange Curse of Anxelam ... A thing that has not been studied and I do not really believe in gods, but who knows. If magic controlled Zeref, it could be blamed on that. Natsu also has something to do with it. Did Zeref think he could kill him faster than death completely engulfed his mind? Although, most likely, he underestimated her influence. It is still worth considering, I do not remember the exact answer, why exactly Natsu can kill him. But I know for sure that magic can drive you crazy. Years in hermitage and constant outbreaks of death can knock down even a four-hundred-year-old psycho "

Aidan was guessing, but of course he couldn't figure it out for sure. Yet he was not a wizard scientist. Although he remembered some things from the past world and understood this one a little better, as he read a lot of explanations, but Fairy Tail is famous for the fact that it is not always a matter of logic and in general everything is not always clear.

Anyway, Aidan wanted to be sure if there were streams of life and death in space? He had never been able to see them, only concentrated in places predisposed for this.

"Probably they are, as they are part of the ether, but I would not be able to notice them. He is neutral and something must affect him. A cemetery with a bunch of dead people is quite suitable ... "- even concentrating on the dried blood for a whole minute, he could not see anything. In any case, he already roughly understood the picture of what had happened.

The son of the count, who arrived, approached the statue and immediately lost half of his body, being cut by an ax. The swordsman and archer just followed his entire squad, the magician tried to break the distance, but as soon as he turned around to understand the situation, he received an arrow in the forehead.

Judging by the traces, the statues clearly returned to their place and returned to their previous position. Then other people came, they were not fools and acted with caution, even unable to feel the aura of death from the blades, their bodies still belonged to wizards, so they felt danger. Therefore, they acted in a simple way - they went to the son of the count, grabbed him and dragged him aside, only, for some reason, the archer reacted and shot three deadly arrows, and then the swordsman jumped off. The magicians did not even have time to do something - instant death. The speed of this swordsman is clearly serious.

- Well, that means he reacted to the approach ... Now the son of the count is far away, and the second and third groups seem to have simply not seen anything else how to do something stupid and touch the statues that killed them the fastest. In any case, with this barrier, sooner or later I will also have to face them.

Aidan just sighed, he didn't know what else to do in this situation. He didn't really want to die, and knowing nothing about his opponents, he didn't want to take risks either.