When Eldrian returned from Vlisia he was quite drained, while he had gotten used to general fighting and death, the destruction of the city was still a bit much for him. Seeing so much death, even if it was only those of their enemy, weighed heavily on him. Especially since he did not understand why they would have fought till the last. What forced them to...
However, he didn't pause. He immediately started testing new combinations and collections of runes.
"You should take a break." Myropsis said but Eldrian simply waved her off.
Noticing that she would not be able to speak any sense into him, Myropsis decided to get Vivian involved. She was normally the only one who could drag him out of his own head. And it was about the time when they would normally spar.
"Hey! You need to stay sharp, don't you?!" Vivian shouted, grabbing the unfished product from Eldrian's hands.
He blinked in confusion as it took him a few seconds to register what had just happened. "I'm fine."
"You're not, at least you should get some fresh air."
"I just did."
"You can't really think that the air of a battlefield is fresh!"
Eldrian sighed, they were right. "Fine, where's Ashliel?"
Frustrated that Eldrian still wasn't listening she whacked the top of his head to try and get his brain to start working properly. "She's having a bad day, don't disturb her."
"How bad?"
"Locked herself in her room. Now come, let's see if all this experimenting rusted your muscles."
Eldrian allowed himself to be pulled out of the forge room. "Training weapons?" He asked as she led him to the ducal family's personal training hall. In the Duke's castle/palace, there were a number of training fields and normally Vivian would join one shared by the soldiers. Training with others was after all always more efficient.
However, she needed to talk with Eldrian and for this, the ducal personal training hall was the best. The entire room was like a separate world, as soon as the doors were closed no sound would escape. The windows that let in light were also enchanted to allow one to see outside but not inside.
This was naturally required since the Duke's family would be taught here, and some of the techniques they learned were family secrets.
"Spill it, what's wrong?" Vivian demanded as soon as they were in the training hall.
Eldrian sighed, "I'm just lost in thought. Nothing to worry about."
"What are you thinking about? You weren't making much progress back there." Myropsis noted, having followed the two since using this room required someone of the ducal family to open the doors.
"I just realized that my worries are far greater than I originally thought. My plan was dumb and unrealistic..." Eldrian sighed again, he had hoped that he could simply showcase the danger of magic and rely on others to control Miracle.
However, he did not consider just how far their reaction to a demonstration of magical powers could go. Just thinking of how fearful everyone had been after he had planted the second memorial flower caused him to sigh yet again.
He hadn't thought much of their wariness at first, and it had been settled rather smoothly when Elizabeth had arrived. And at that time his thoughts had been on the mana density, especially on how the artifact had consumed death mana. It hadn't been one of the things he had actively aimed for it to do, nor had it been in the functions after creation.
He believed it was likely due to the nature of the two flowers, but he wasn't a master in craftwork. The flowers at best roughly resemble the actual flowers. They were close enough to have people familiar with them recognize them but not perfect recreations. It seemed that it was close enough though, allowing the flowers to somehow be magical in their own right.
Regardless, on his way back he had finally moved his thoughts from the mana to the reaction he had gotten. And this was from trained soldiers. Sure their guard was heightened since they had just lived through such a tragedy. Eldrian couldn't imagine what people on Earth would do if he showcased the strongest spells he could cast.
The spells would be massively weakened compared to in ANW, it was still certain to send everyone into a panic. And while he needed to warn them of the danger that Miracle was, he feared that sending them into a panic could result in ANW simply being shut down.
'I am now quite sure that people would try to stop Miracle outright. I never considered how far they might go. If the danger of magic is as great or greater than nukes, it only made sense to destroy the servers, we don't need more tools of mass destruction... But that would kill everyone who exists in them.'
Eldrian could see no in-between. People might be creatures of habit, but we also acted in extremes when uncertain. It took a great deal of effort to stay calm and consider things from all sides.
And no one was going to consider the NPCs' lives valuable enough to enter the equation. It would only be a question of curiosity versus fear of the unfamiliar.
'Is my only option attempting to make a server of my own? Can I even accomplish this, mana is so scarce on Earth? I'm already at my limit just trying to ensure my family won't be hurt.'
'I need allies or I need knowledge. And since I can't really trust people with what I know easily, I have to learn more. And the only possible way to do this is meeting the other Divines if possible, or hoping on a useful flashback through my bloodline...'
"Hey, hey Eldrian!" Vivian's shouts finally pulled him out of his thoughts, "Thought you said it wasn't anything big. You've sighed more times than I can count and that look isn't one of someone who isn't worried."
"Maybe we should postpone the plans." Eldrian suggested.
"I don't mind, but would that be fine?"
"I don't know..."
"Mind sharing what you are thinking?" Myropsis asked.
"I just realized my plan to scare people to be careful with magic might cause them to fear it outright."
"Which means they might try to stop it from ever being discovered. I see, quite a heavy problem."
"Indeed, and I can't not inform them. People need to be aware of the dangers."
"What? That's simple, isn't it?" Vivian tilted her head in confusion, "Simply show them that magic is possible and give them a warning."
"If I only say it without showing them-"
"Then it will be on them for not heading your warning. The thing is you need to be careful with how you explain things. Don't rush things, show them something simple. Tier 0 spells should be safe, right?"
"Yeah, and even casting them is quite difficult due to the lack of mana."
"Well, then explain this to everyone. And warn them of possible dangers... And be careful."
"Thanks..." Eldrian felt much better, it might not be as grand a showing as he had thought of first. But simply proving to the world that magic existed would certainly catch the world's attention. His warnings might be ignored, but Eldrian doubted many people could cause as much damage to the world as he.
'Take it slow. My focus should be on becoming the central figure for magic. In that regard, I need to talk with Ilmadia.'
Eldrian talked a bit more with the two, sharing some of his other thoughts and the strangness of the artifact. Vivian hadn't been too interested, up until she heard that it had drawn in the death mana.