Ahoy hoy, Ziggy-desu.
How has your head canon been going recently, lads and ladettes? Good? Poor? Middling?
Today, let's talk about a very strange peculiarity that cropped up in the latest volume: you might recall a certain mystery about everyone's favorite Elf King Lord chad -
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It hurts.
Even so, Decem started to run.
The blood he left behind was a sign of his declining health.
The fear of death welled up in his heart. Even though he had equipped magic items
that resisted fear, it couldn’t eliminate what was born from inside him.
That was why — because he was being urged onward by his fear — his body
followed exactly what his mind demanded of it. He kicked the floor with a speed
he had never reached until now.
His vision of his surroundings blurred as he picked up speed, instantly reducing the
distance between him and the undead.
He ignored the undead’s warning as he passed by him, hearing a tongue click and
then a spell being cast.
“[Time Stop].”
He expected more pain from the spell but didn’t feel any. No, maybe there was.
Perhaps the pain from his deep wound had taken a turn for the worse from him
running, to the point where he couldn’t even notice any other source of pain even if there was such a thing.
So — Decem continued to run. The stairs were very close.
The pain in his chest was surprisingly strong, but there was no hesitation in his legs.
[V16]
So, he finally chose [Time stop]. This could be resisted as well if he had measures against it, but it should be harder to deal with unless he used a magic item. “[Time Stop]!” He didn’t stop. Decem didn’t stop. Ainz didn’t click his tongue. He had already thought about this possibility in a corner of his mind. I
[V16]
“Sorry for letting him escape!” Upon hearing Aura’s apology, Ainz turned his gaze from the stairs that Decem had disappeared under to her. “No... No, you are right...that skill was a poor choice, Aura. You saw that he had countermeasures against time stop and instant death during that fight. You should have also assumed that he had some countermeasures against crowd control.” Ainz lifted a hand to stop Aura, who was trying to apologize again. “But, I am also at fault for not warning you about it. In fact, I didn’t expect him to have measures for crowd control either. That aside...what do you think we should do now?”
[V16]
“You used [Petit-catastrophe]!? . . . . . . . . . to think she didn’t die from that. . . . . . ..that human is certainly strong. Mare had been really fortunate. . . . . . ..So what happened to the elf king?” Hearing the end of the elf king from Mare, Ainz wrinkled his non-existent brows. [Time stop] didn’t work on him so it’s highly likely that he was equipped with an item to nullify it. He wanted to retrieve the equipment. But he also wanted to gather intelligence from that woman at the same time. Retrieving the equipment should be prioritized here as that human wouldn’t be escaping from Nazarick anytime soon.
[V16]
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Ainz logically deduces Decem probably had anti-Time Stop equipment. But consider for a moment - Decem didn't know about the Time Stop spell. And recall - Dragon Lords are also unaffected by Time Stop. Also Ainz never mentions him having powerful equipment and seemed surprised Time Stop didn't work.
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Certainly, he could have cast [Time Stop]. However, [Time Stop] had been ineffective against the Brightness Dragon Lord which he had fought before, which meant that it was very likely that it would also be useless against the Dragon Lord Cure Elim’s original body
[KBA]
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So how did Decem ignore Time Stop? He's no Dragon Lord. And he was a Summoner. One thought is Decem accidentally discovered a new spell in desperation - if you pay attention you can see how he asserts he was moving faster than he ever did before.
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It hurts. Even so, Decem started to run. The blood he left behind was a sign of his declining health. The fear of death welled up in his heart. Even though he had equipped magic items that resisted fear, it couldn’t eliminate what was born from inside him. That was why — because he was being urged onward by his fear — his body followed exactly what his mind demanded of it. He kicked the floor with a speed he had never reached until now. His vision of his surroundings blurred as he picked up speed
[V16]
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One thought is he's using some sort of speed enhancement buff, like whatever Clementine used, and this might be what Zy'tl and Brightness Dragon Lord used as well which somehow counters Time Stop. Ziggy has talked about that before, but the idea is the agility bonus is messing with time somehow, even if minutely, and alters the person's frequency and YGGDRASIL Time Stop cannot account for this. Your head canon might vary, but whatever works!
Anyway Ziggy already talked about that in a different article before if you want an elaboration. For now back to the main topic!
This isn't the first time we have seen someone activate abilities in desperation however even if it's just a buff- both Climb and Brain also achieved this.
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He moved his finger, tracing a line down his chest. That must have been the
path Climb’s sword traveled when it had hit him.
“Huhhh. Huhhhh. Huhhh. Huhhhhh…”
Climb panted and gasped. He could feel the blood pouring out of his abdomen,
drenching his clothes and his chain shirt.
—I’m going to die.
Climb scrabbled for the pieces of his consciousness which had been rent
asunder by the pain.
—That was not the attack of a dying man. Those words raced through Succulent’s increasingly frantic mind. No, it was not just that. The speed of Climb’s blade had been even faster than when he was unhurt. “How the hell did you do that, you bastard!” This was someone who became stronger through battle. It was not impossible, but Succulent had never witnessed anyone like that before. He even began to feel that the young man had thrown off some kind of limitation. “What the hell did you do? Was it a magic item? A martial art?!” From his tone, one would be unable to tell who had come out victorious in their battle just now.
[V5]
There was nothing he could do about it. After all, it was impossible for an ant to prevail against a Dragon. A fact that was hard to swallow, but he had to nonetheless. Still, he did not wish to lose. What should he do? It would be good to reduce the overwhelming gap in strength between them even if by a little, but how should he go about accomplishing that? —I am a warrior, so I must do as a warrior would! “—[Ability Boost]!” Brain activated a martial art. He had expended all his reserves for [True Nail Clipper], there should not have been anything left for other martial arts. However — Brain’s eyes began to fill with blood and blood began to stream down his nostrils. His capillaries had just burst. A shing sound rang out as if to signify a transition. His physical capabilities were boosted to the next level. He activated another martial art. His physical capabilities were boosted once more. But — Not… yet… He was still unable to do it. So what should he do? There was only one answer. Brain activated yet another martial art. “—[Greater Ability Boost]!” Brain Unglaus had yet again, achieved something impossible. He did not know this himself. The true nature of his Talent was an increase in his focus capacity, only with this and the addition of his higher levels was he able to activate the martial arts required by [True Nail Clipper]. But, even so, Brain had his limits. He could not use any more martial arts than that, a limit imposed upon him by the world. But, in that moment — Brain broke the rules of this world once more. A second miracle of this kind. The first was when he cut Shalltear’s nail. The second, was made in this moment.
The consequence of breaking the rules was that his body began to deteriorate.
His body probably couldn’t last for even one more minute.
However, to those who were strong, a minute was a long time.
[V14]
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It might not be apparent it's relevancy, but recall another mystery from the very first volume - how did Ainz hear Enri's father plead for help if the language he speaks wasn't Japanese? After all, the Mirror of Remote Viewing cannot transmit sound!
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He waved his hand again, showing a scene from another part of the village. It seemed like two knights were trying to pull a violently struggling villager off another knight. The man was pulled away, his arms were held, and he was rendered motionless where he stood. Before Momonga’s eyes, the man was stabbed with a sword. The blade entered his body and exited from the other side of him. It should have been a fatal blow, but the longsword did not stop. One, two, three strikes — the knight seemed to be taking out his anger on the villager as he hacked at the man’s body. In the end, the knight kicked away the villager, who collapsed to the ground while spurting his blood into the air. —The villager looked straight at Momonga. No, this might have just been a coincidence. It was definitely a coincidence. There was no way for anyone to detect the mirror’s surveillance apart from anti-divination spells. Frothy blood leaked from the villager’s mouth as he tried to open his mouth. His eyes were unfocused, and Momonga could not tell where he was looking. Even so, with what may have been his dying breaths, he gasped his last words: —Please, save my daughter—
[V1]
While the Chief’s words were helpful, there were still many unclear details. Therefore, it would be better to send someone over there to find out, rather than ask the Chief questions. Finally, there was the matter of language. It was truly surprising that they understood Japanese in this new world. As a result, Ainz looked carefully at the Village Chief’s mouth, and discovered that he was not, in fact, speaking Japanese. Neither their words of the movements of their mouths matched up with the Japanese language.
[V1]
“Understood!” “Now then, Pandora’s Actor, you spoke with him, correct? What did you talk about, what attitude did he adopt, and what emotions could you feel from him? Do tell us in detail. After all, this mirror cannot transmit sound.” “Understood!” Pandora’s Actor began re-enacting his conversations with Riku. Their conversations weren’t long, so it was pretty easy to act out. He even injected some of his own interpretations mid-dialogue: the emotions he felt through Riku’s tone and the respective explanations.
[V14]
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Have you ever pondered that mystery before? A few have and they chalk it up to bad writing. But what if... it wasn't? In Volume 1 that might be plausible, but think about all these events again. There's actually one common feature these people all have when breaking common sense and making the impossible possible. Did you notice it?
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In the end, the knight kicked away the villager, who collapsed to the ground while spurting his blood into the air. —The villager looked straight at Momonga.
[V1]
Climb panted and gasped. He could feel the blood pouring out of his abdomen, drenching his clothes and his chain shirt.
[V5]
However — Brain’s eyes began to fill with blood and blood began to stream down his nostrils. His capillaries had just burst.
[V14]
It hurts. Even so, Decem started to run. The blood he left behind was a sign of his declining health.
[V16]
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At least in this situations, all these people were either bleeding out or suffering from blood loss to a minor extent.
If you recall the digression on Savage Magic, one thought was it was powered either by ENERGY or consumed life force. But an new interpretations opens up now: what if it was powered by using the blood of your prey?
Blood is, after all, sometimes thought to be the essence of life. And in the past Ziggy compared Brain's usage of the miracle version of True Nail Clipper as Soul Ignition, that power Dragon Lords can use to sacrifice themselves to use a powerful ability.
What if for the people of this world, they can access Lesser Soul Ignition via blood loss, a Blood Bought Miracle? Dun Dun Duuuuuuuuun.
It sounds a bit strange but consider again when Crusch was over exerting herself and seemed to pass out from mana over use but then kept casting additional spells:
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Crusch smiled, despite the circumstances. However, she immediately wiped it off her face and focused on the battle. At the same time, she breathed hard, to get her panting under control. She had cast warding spells on Rororo and healed him before coming here, and she had also been casting support spells on Zenberu. She had been overexerting herself. In addition, she had cast a summon spell on top of that. Her body was in an exhausted state and she was having trouble standing. She even lacked the strength to heal herself. In addition, Crusch had also calmly decided that the mana would have been wasted on doing so, given that she was slowly losing the ability to fight. However, if she fell here, it would demoralize Zenberu and Zaryusu, who were fighting on the frontlines. Blood flowed from the corner of Crusch’s mouth as she bit at the inside of her cheek to keep herself conscious. “[Middle Cure Wounds]!” She cast healing magic on Zaryusu, who was engaged in a melee with Iguva. Her legs felt powerless and her vision was shaky. She felt a liquid sensation all over her body. For a moment, Crusch had no idea why she had ended up like that. When had she fallen into the mud? However, she immediately realized the reason why. She had not taken additional wounds, so she must have passed out for a moment and collapsed. Crusch breathed a sigh of relief, not because she was still alive, but because she could still fight. She did not plan to force herself to stand. Rather, she had no strength left to stand, and she felt it would be a waste of energy to do so. She saw the forms of Zaryusu and Zenberu fighting hard in her blurred vision; the forms of the companions she had traveled with for a brief period. Zenberu had taken on four Skeleton Warriors at once, and Zaryusu had endured Iguva’s onslaught of magical attacks. Both of them were covered in wounds. Crusch got her breathing under control, and cast a spell. “[Middle Cure Wounds]!” And in addition to healing Zenberu’s wounds… “[Middle Cure Wounds]!” She healed Zaryusu’s injuries. “Huu…” Crusch was panting. Her breathing felt strange. She was breathless, no matter how hard she tried to take in air. This must be a symptom of magic overuse. Her head ached like she had been clubbed. Even so, Crusch tried her hardest to force her eyes open. So many people had died so far — how could she be the first to leave the battlefield? As she forcefully opened her heavy-lidded eyes, she continued casting: “[Middle Cure Wounds]!”
[V4]
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Did you notice?
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Blood flowed from the corner of Crusch’s mouth as she bit at the inside of her cheek to keep herself conscious.
[V4]
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Crazy ain't it? Was this always around? Or is this something that only appeared after the world was FUBARed by the Greed Kings like Fragmentation Hypothesis believes? Is it as strong as what Dragon Lords can do with True Soul Ignition?
Well Soul Ignition is a bit different - it's the destruction of yourself. This is like a weaker form of that, where it doesn't require your death to use. Our Sus Lord, Ankloursus Lord might be able to use magic by using others to fuel his magic - ie his prey's blood. That's not strange if you consider Dragon Lords can use the souls or life force of others (ie OLDE MANA) and not their own.
The strange part is New Worlders seem to only be able to use these powers in conjunction with blood either theirs (or someone else's via Our Sus Lord's Savage Magic). How strange. Dragon Lords never appeared to need blood, but we haven't seen one fight in person that wasn't undead or acting through a proxy (Cure Elim was technically able to marionette his own undead mindless, zombie body meanwhile Tsa was able to marionette an empty armor).
Let's go through this piece by piece.
Crusch was basically out of mana but somehow was able to cast spells without it after bleeding and passing (Our Sus Lord can cast without mana as well)
Climb acquired Limit Break Mind likely due to his training with Sebas, his dedication to training, and this 'blood' power was the catalyst to manifest it something Maruyama said was too strong for his level.
Brain, having hit his Focus Capacity limit, was able to use more martial arts beyond that and his talent facilitated by blood loss. This was something he could do without killing himself as the text describes it, but this should of been against the rules.
Then we have Decem - who seems to have used an Agility buff that operated like Clementine's ability buffs to ignore Time Stop by whatever principles New World agility works under.
That's not a lot to go on, however, it does give us a framework that New Worlders who are wounded can access greater power or self harm themselves to tap into more power. It's like a Lesser Wild Magic, though formally it's some sort of universal 'magic'. Both tier magic users AND martial art users can use it after all. And this power does have limits - Climb's buff is still only so strong, as is Brain's power up. Decem wasn't running at the speed of light either nor did Crusch get infinite mana.
Wild Magic's Soul Ignition was limited too, Maruyama suggests Cure Elim who is alive may or may not have been able to use Soul Breaker by killing himself. So that implies it's not a guarantee and proves a limitation of SUDOKU Soul Ignition.
The strange thing is all these powers are basically fueled by a loss of life force in different forms - in the case of New Worlders that are not PRIMITIVE CASTERS, it's done via blood, a cruder medium. Was this power always present? Is this something Dragon Lord's noticed and trained with before acquiring Primitive Caster as a job class? Or was it something that only existed after the Greed Kings?
It's tough to say, theoretically, if Dragon Lords exploited this, they would of continued to use blood as a medium in Ziggy's opinion but we haven't seen one fight in person so we cannot say for certain. Satoru however never comments on Cure Elim using wild magic without blood loss so that implies Brightness Dragon Lord could use wild magic without bleeding. Draudilion never describes blood in her use of wild magic either.
It's an interesting thing to ponder right? It's limited and it doesn't seem related to any specific class as far as we can tell - maybe it's a Druid only thing for job casters, but Our Sus Lord shows it might not be related to any. Fighters however also have access to it. But few people seem aware that this even works. And remember - Enri's father somehow defied common sense and sent a message to Ainz without using the same lip movements or Ainz hearing him via audio.
Therein lies the fly in the ointment - Enri's father should of just been a Farmer. Yet when he was bleeding to death he performed... some sort of miracle. It's not great but he basically used auto translate on his lips to beg for help even if he didn't know Ainz.
Are these miracles paid for with blood? Does it manifest your heart's truest desires so long as a price is paid in life blood?
How strange...
Still, it does explain that mystery no one else had an answer for in Volume 1. It also explains why Climb got a shonen power up or Decem's lack of powerful equipment yet resisting Time Stop without seeming to know about it.
Is this really a mechanic? But then why is it tied to no class in particular?
That may not be true however - one theory is Crusch's Dragon Adept is the class you can get once you abuse this power enough given how much she over used casting with what seems like no mana. But that could just be because of her heritage and Lizardman culture having ties to Dragon Lords.
Maybe you can only get the class if you have the heritage like Draudillion seems to have needed heritage to access Wild Magic via her Talent? Keno can use Wild magic without heritage however but Talents ignore lots of rules...
Hmmmmmmmmmmm..................................
It's tough to say. It's clear this power is sort of like a way to access 'SOFT' magic via blood loss. It even lets you cast magic without mana apparently. The SOFTness is limited - it's not omnipotent and is bounded. But it doesn't just let you use magic - Crush was actively using magic while using this power, but Climb and Brain were not. Decem didn't even seem to understand what he was doing like Climb didn't seem to know at the time. Brain however was consciously trying to use more martial arts while Crush was consciously casting despite having severely low mana. Enri's father likely didn't know what he was doing either... That or it's normal to beg for help from skeletons you cannot see that you don't know are watching you...
Clearly this system or whatever this mechanic is limited... But the allure is how SOFT it is...... That's the allure of all magic. This is TRUE magic though - it doesn't seem to require vocal components, ignores systems restrictions, and even works for casters and non casters so far as YGGDRASIL defined them. It's not strong, it's certainly bounded by what it can do.
Still is this a vestige of what 'magic' used to be like before YGGDRASIL polluted it? A power anyone can use? Or is this the precursor to Wild magic dragon Lords discovered and mastered? Or is this just something everyone can do like how theoretically anyone can have a Talent no matter their classes and access that power?
It seems like no one in the setting noticed this at all... Even Dragon Lords don't seem to teach it but we do know some dragons teach about magic from Ninya so that might just be in this region and it doesn't spread far? Or it's a secret technique no one passes around openly?
It's certainly a bigger pickle than even how Enri's father defied logic and Ainz understood him. Well no, that still seems like a mistake, but this 'mechanic' with blood presents an interesting argument for addressing that plot hole.
Ziggy's perspective is thus - just as Our Sus Lord can cast magic with seemingly no mana and Dragon Lords can cast magic without new mana, just OLDE MANA, maybe blood meets the requirement of 'mana' as far as the New World is concerned? The problem is do we even consider this Blood Magic a system of magic? It's closer to a universal mechanic.
Skill? Feat? Magic? Talents? What really differentiates these to begin with in terms of how we categorize them? Clearly Talents don't require classes, magic requires spell casting, feats just sort of exist with classes, and skills are right there as well.
But then what is Blood Magic? It's clearly closer to Martial Arts and Talents, where anyone can tap into it like anyone can have a Talent but it's way more free styling like Martial Arts tend to be. What gives?
Ziggy doesn't think we should call it Blood Magic though it does bend reality. The reasoning is thus - it is closer to a catalyst - so long as blood is spilled you can then achieve things you shouldn't normally be able to. In this case it's closer to a Bloodied Status bonus or feat. Likewise, this "ability" seems universal and doesn't have it's own powers it only acts in service of other powers or skill checks or so on. But what do you think? Also it requires altruism or DETERMINATION to tap into it. That or you're so scared you want to just GTFO of somewhere dangerous... Cowards can be determined right?
This is why Ziggy sees it closer to Talents - talents let you just 'cheat' a little bit or a lot, and do things you normally shouldn't be able to, like walk on water for five steps or use the ultimate skill of your God just by touching stuff they touched. The only difference is no one in the story or reads it knows how Talents work or are fueled by, but this power at least is powered by blood loss. Martial Arts in contrast are more limited in what they can do.
Ziggy isn't sure, do you want to categorize this as Quasi magic? System magic? Natural magical tomfoolery? IT JUST WORKS?
Mechanically however, it doesn't seem reliant on classes, it complements the other classes, and it's usable by all sorts of people ignoring builds to an extent. That's why Ziggy suggests viewing it as a universal mechanic of some sort. That might be why Our Sus Lord didn't have any classes YGGDRASIL knew how to categorize...
Crush just ignored mana requirements (or offset mana requirements)
Climb used a new martial art he never used before and should of been beyond him
Brain just ignored his focus capacity
Decem ran a bit faster without casting a spell (closer to accessing whatever Martial Arts or wild magic buffs that interact strangely with YGGDRASIL time magic).
Who knows, maybe if you specialize in this, you can get classes YGGDRASIL didn't have that don't increase stats at all or even show up on character sheets? No one really seems aware of it. Though you might be able to argue Crush's Dragon Adept class is what you get if you have the heritage AND you accidentally discover this power? Maybe Dragon Adept is just casting magic using alternate sources of fuel or mana. IE you are casting without using any of YGGDRASIL's classes or mana. Who knows, most people don't even bother to think about what Dragon Adept does....
eg:
In bloodied state
Bend reality slightly in minute ways or manifest powers based off your desires
Using Maruyama logic and naming schemes however....
If Soul Ignition is the Brain and Dragon Lord YEEEEET yourself to perform a miracle, ie a true Soul Bought Miracle, then is this a Blood Bought Miracle?
Again, where do Miracles end and Magic begins in a world of magic anyway? Maruyama makes it very clear what Brain did at least was a 'miracle' based on data common sense. But then we see Decem break YGGDRASIL rules and it's due to his specific classes. Talents in contrast can break the rules too, so maybe we can start to classify powers like these as Magic AND Skill Adjacent?
Ziggy isn't sure... Maybe one of you children can figure it out in your fan fics or in discussions! Ziggy is getting too old... That or maybe Ziggy is a dum dum......... Why not both?!
Dun Dun Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun
Sorry there isn't much else to go on with this given how vague and difficult it is even to conceptualize it as part of the game logic. Not as bad as trying to make sense of Talents (oooffff that is a convoluted topic that requires a lot of groundwork to begin to elaborate on).
Anyway, have fun playing with this idea of Blood Bought Miracle Magic Skill Feats! Remember, Ziggy and Maruayma are always wrong. If nothing else you surprise people with the mystery of how in the world Ainz understood Enri's father in Volume 1 because it seems like no one paid attention to the fact the mirror has no audio and the man is speaking with lip movements Ainz doesn't know!
Ziggy's answer: Enri's father used a Blood Bought Miracle to apply auto translate to his lip movements, conveying the meaning to anyone in anyway he could from his heartfelt desire to save his family. This implies even Normal or Civilian classes can use Blood Bought Miracles.
In your Overlord however, whatever answer you want to be right is right! Anyway it's time to say good bye once again lads and ladettes.
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