Crystal shards littered the floor.
The silence lasted three seconds before Natsu was the first to lunge at Lin Yuan.
"That was amazing! Do it again!"
"Do you want him to blow up the Guild too?" Gray grabbed Natsu's scarf.
"Let go, exhibitionist!"
"I'm wearing pants today!"
The hall descended into chaos again. Makarov picked up a fragment and found that it had been crushed to powder from within by some kind of force.
"Lin Yuan, how much magic power did you use just now?"
"I just wanted to make it light up."
Makarov's frown deepened at that answer.
Half an hour later, Lin Yuan left the Guild with him again.
The two passed through the forest east of Magnolia and stopped in front of a wooden house surrounded by medicinal herb gardens. Makarov had only knocked once when the wooden door flew open.
An old woman in a white robe stood inside, holding a broom.
"Humans aren't welcome here. Get out!"
"Porlyusica, I haven't even said anything yet."
"Nothing good ever comes of your visits."
The broom swung at Makarov without mercy. He ducked it with practiced ease and pushed Lin Yuan in front of him.
"This boy hurt his shoulder, and there's also something wrong with his magic power."
Porlyusica's broom stopped in midair. She shot Makarov a cold glare, then turned and stepped aside.
"Kid, come in. You stay outside."
The wooden door slammed shut, nearly hitting the Guild Master's nose.
A strong medicinal herb smell filled the house. Porlyusica removed the bandage from Lin Yuan's shoulder. Her movements were anything but gentle, but they were extremely practiced.
The wound had already scabbed over.
"Yesterday it was deep enough to see the bone," Makarov said through the window from outside.
"Shut up." Porlyusica examined it carefully for a moment. "That's not a normal human's rate of recovery. Kid, have you undergone any physical modifications before?"
"I don't remember."
"Another problem you picked up."
She applied a few drops of medicinal liquid around the wound. The green liquid quickly turned black upon contact with his skin, while an instinctive resistance rose within Lin Yuan, as though something wanted to tear the foreign magic power apart.
Porlyusica wiped the liquid away immediately.
"His body even resists healing magic."
She took out a slender magic needle and pressed it against Lin Yuan's chest. Its tip glowed faintly as it probed along his meridians toward the source of his magic power.
The ten extinguished golden rings appeared before Lin Yuan's eyes again.
The needle's tip snapped without warning.
A heavy aura flashed from within him and vanished. The medicine bottles on the shelves shook at the same time. Porlyusica's hand froze in midair, and her expression turned grave for the first time.
"He's humanlike, but bears scars far older than this body."
It fell quiet outside the door.
Makarov pushed the door open and entered. "What do you mean?"
"Exactly what I said. His body is very young, but his soul looks as though something pierced it, and a power I can't identify is sealed inside him."
"Can you undo it?"
"If you want him dead, just say so." Porlyusica glared at him. "The seal is protecting him right now."
Lin Yuan lowered his head and looked at his hand. "What about the power from last night?"
"Explain."
He described the black-and-silver line and how the five meters of distance had disappeared.
Porlyusica thought for a moment, then took two small Magic Crystals from a cabinet and placed them at opposite ends of the room. She also put protective talismans on the walls and floor.
"Stand here and look at those two crystals. Don't draw on too much magic power. Just remember the 'line' you grabbed last night."
Lin Yuan closed his eyes as instructed.
At first, there was nothing.
He could feel the magic power within him, but he couldn't make it flow in the same direction. Those powers rampaged through his meridians like a pack of wild beasts without reins.
"Don't command the magic power," Porlyusica said. "Think about what you wanted to do then."
Then?
He wanted to live.
He also wanted to land a punch on that wolf.
Lin Yuan opened his eyes again.
An extremely faint black-and-silver line appeared between the two crystals. It wasn't material; it was more like the very fact that they were "this far apart."
The magic power within him suddenly grew quiet.
A powerful hunger rose in its wake.
Lin Yuan instinctively opened his hand and grabbed at the line. His fingertips touched nothing, yet a strange sensation like swallowing came from his palm.
The two crystals, several meters apart, abruptly came together.
The tables and chairs didn't move an inch, and the protective talismans remained intact. Only the distance between the crystals seemed to have been swallowed in one bite by an invisible mouth.
Makarov's eyes widened. "That's no ordinary space magic."
"Of course not." Porlyusica stared at Lin Yuan's hand. "Space magic moves people or objects, but he's devouring space. His body, magic power, and instincts are completely connected, like Dragon Slayer Magic, but with something else as its prey."
"Dragon Slayer?"
"It's only similar. This is more like a kind of Slayer True Magic that's never been recorded."
The hunger in Lin Yuan's palm didn't disappear. Instead, it grew fiercer after its first meal.
Black-and-silver lines spread rapidly in every direction.
"Stop!"
Porlyusica shouted sharply.
Lin Yuan withdrew his hand, but he was a moment too late.
The upper right corner of the room caved in silently. The wall, crossbeam, and roof didn't shatter or fall; instead, they vanished along with the space they had occupied, leaving a pitch-black gap with smooth edges, shaped like a bite mark.
Sunlight streamed in through the gap.
Porlyusica slowly turned to look at her house, now missing a corner.
Makarov quietly took a step back toward the door.