Not Dark Arts at All

Regulus wanted more than just to replicate the properties of the Mandrake; he wanted to understand it and then surpass it.

He didn't just want the Mandrake to decompose; he wanted it to decompose itself.

In the physical world, weathering and erosion are the slow peeling of rocks by wind and rain, transforming them from whole blocks into fragments, and from fragments into sand and gravel.

This is decomposition.

The collapse of the spell's structure means that the intricate Magic Circuit are severed by an external force, the spell becomes ineffective, and the Magic creation reverts to its raw materials.

This is also decomposition.

The disintegration of a living organism's tissues is the loss of cell function, the cessation of organ cooperation, and the transformation of what was once a whole capable of running, jumping, and thinking into a corpse.

This is still a breakdown.

The very foundation of Magic creations was shaken; the Magic imprints attached to the objects were erased, and family treasures Millennial Heritage were reduced to ordinary metal and wood.

This is also a decomposition.

What he needs is a universal decomposition logic that can handle all these objects.

The decomposition of Mandrake alone is far from enough; it needs to decompose itself.

Regulus raised his head.

The sky outside the window was completely dark; the sea and the night sky merged into one in the distance, making it impossible to distinguish which was water and which was sky.

Only a few scattered stars pierced through the clouds, shining brightly high above, quiet and eternal.

He thought of Betelgeuse, the red supergiant star, seven hundred million times the size of the Sun, and six hundred and forty light-years away from Earth.

Light travels at 300,000 kilometers per second for 640 years before reaching his eyes.

What he saw was what the star looked like 640 years ago.

At that time, the positions of the Belt Stars Orion's Belt were different from what he saw now, but the change was so slow that it would be difficult for humans to perceive it even over hundreds of years, but the change was indeed happening.

Even stars have a lifespan.

They burn hydrogen, helium, carbon for millions, tens of millions, billions of years, until the fuel runs out.

The smaller ones expand into red giants, ejecting their outer gas into space, while their centers collapse into white dwarfs.

When a massive iron core accumulates to a critical value, it can no longer withstand its own gravity, collapses inward, rebounds, and explodes into a supernova.

The brightness produced during the outburst exceeded the total brightness of the entire galaxy.

During the explosion, all the heavy elements produced by fusion are ejected into space.

Those heavy elements floated in the darkness for millions of years, were captured by gravity, and condensed into new stars and new planets.

Earth's iron core originated from a supernova that exploded six billion years ago.

All the metal parts on his body were made from materials mined from the Earth's crust. Those iron atoms were generated when that Supernova Explosion, ejected, captured, and buried in a mineral vein on Earth billions of years later.

Even stars will eventually fade away.

Order becomes chaos, and chaos is then organized into a new order by gravity.

Isn't this decomposition?

Loosen the already formed structure, let the solidified energy flow, and allow such existence to return to a state where it can become something else.

The Magic Power of Mandrake is decomposition, using seven and a half Magic Circuit to color pure Life Magic Power, causing the whole that comes into contact with it to lose its overall definition.

The life cycle of a star is also a process of decomposition, where gravitational collapse severs the binding energy between atomic nuclei, causing the iron core to disintegrate within a fraction of a second, returning the matter accumulated over six billion years to the universe.

The former is the path of Magic, the latter is the rule of physics.

They are 640 light-years apart, 6 billion years apart, separated by the realms of Magic and science, each defined by wizards and Muggle respectively.

But the underlying logic is the same: to return order to chaos, and to allow chaos to be redefined.

The night outside the window was deep, and a cool sea breeze blew in from the east.

He wanted to replicate the principle of stellar collapse into a spell, but that might not be the domain of any wizard at all.

But he can bring that perspective in.

The decomposition of Mandrake is such that the skin is no longer skin, the flesh is no longer flesh, and the bones are no longer bones.

The decomposition of stars means that iron is no longer iron, silicon is no longer silicon, and oxygen is no longer oxygen.

The decomposition he desires is to return any entity to the state it was in before it was organized into existence.

It's not just plants that can do this.

Physics can do it, gravity can do it, time can do it.

As for whether Magic can actually do it?

Regulus looked out at the sea.

The waves have been crashing against the rocks for thousands of years, day and night, without ever ceasing.

He didn't have an answer, but he really wanted to try.

Regulus kept these thoughts to himself.

That idea is too grand, so grand that it can be gradually realized as an ultimate vision.

There's still a lot to learn and accumulate, but being able to perfectly replicate the decomposition Magic Power of Mandrake is already a milestone.

But at least the path of Natural Magic was opened up, or rather, Regulus found a new way.

His development of Natural Magic was in a completely different direction from that of his Eldrin.

If you want to obtain the properties of any Magical Plant again, you simply have to go through this path again.

To understand, to replicate, and to transform into one's own.

As for the Severing Charm itself, once the spell was developed, he no longer needed the spell, and he could put the wand away.

Now he can cast it with a wave of his hand, silently and without a staff, without any pre-casting signal.

Moreover, among the many spells he possessed, this was almost the most sinister.

Regulus sat by the Greenhouse window, looking at his outstretched palms.

Based on its effects, this Magic undoubtedly falls under the category of Dark Arts.

Its direct effect is death; it turns a living organism from a whole into fragments, from existence to non-existence.

If the Ministry of Magic's classification standards were strict enough, they could easily put the Severing Charm and the Killing Curse on the same page.

However, it does not require strong negative emotions to participate.

At least that's how it is for him.

When Spellcasting, his mind was filled only with the Magic Power model and the logical structure of the breakdown; there was no hatred, no murderous intent, and no dark emotions that needed to be stirred up.

Everything is readily available, like products on an assembly line. Just fill in the required parameters, and the result will naturally appear.

The Killing Curse requires genuine killing intent, a pure will to kill the target.

The Patronus Charm requires the happiest memories and needs to be fed with positive emotions to the Silver Light.

What is required for the Severing Charm?

This needs to be understood.

We need to truly understand what it means to make the complete no longer complete; we need to etch that abstract concept of decomposition into our consciousness, making it as natural as breathing.

Only then can the decomposed attributes be automatically added to the model when constructing the Magic Power model.

This incantation is extremely well-executed.

However, unlike Spatial Warp, which can be learned by simply explaining the key points, teaching people to chant spells and wave wands, this method is different.

There's an unavoidable hurdle to overcome with the Severing Charm: you must construct that Magic Power model in your mind.

Of course, you can't just draw any Magic Circuit.

That model was a complete replica that Regulus spent nine days, sacrificing the lives of twenty Mandrake, and going through countless failures and adjustments.

Its entrance angle, the branching position of the main trunk, the curvature of the seven and a half loops, and the width of the exit are all completely consistent with the internal logic of the Mandrake core.

If it's even one degree off, the Magic Power will flow in but not come out.

If you miss the mark by half a circle, the magic that comes out is ordinary Magic Power, without any attributes.

If the location of any branch is missing, the model will collapse automatically after running.

This involves mentally replicating the core Magic Power structure of a complex life form, requiring an abnormally high level of precision.

Moreover, replicating it is only the first step; the more difficult part is making it an instinctive reaction, so that it can be fully activated at any time.

If you want to teach others--

Regulus thought that first he had to make the other party understand the decomposition.

Let the whole cease to be whole, let the collective become countless isolated entities, and let order return to its original state.

This understanding is difficult to convey in words.

He can give examples of Mandrake and demonstrate its effects, but whether the other person understands it depends entirely on themselves.

Only with this understanding can one truly integrate that abstract concept of decomposition into every thread of the Magic Power Magic Power when constructing it.

This should be considered the standard for high-level spells.

It's not just about reciting the right spell and waving the right wand; something else has to be involved.

The Killing Curse requires pure murderous intent, the Patronus Charm requires the happiest memories, and Legilimency requires isolating emotions from thought.

The Severing Charm requires an objective understanding of a certain abstract concept.

Regulus felt that this might be more difficult for most wizards.

From a young age, they were taught to associate Magic with emotions.

Anger makes flames burn brighter, sorrow makes water flow backward, and joy makes Patronus shine brighter; it's easy for them to manipulate certain emotions to Spellcasting.

But whether they could calmly and objectively understand an abstract concept and transform that understanding into the core of Magic, Regulus was unsure.

He had never encountered other Magic similar to the Severing Charm and didn't know if there were any precedents for it in the Wizarding World.

Perhaps it existed in Ancient Magic, but the modern Magical Education system has long abandoned this model.

Your father could try it.