Harry Potter: The Legend of Nero Ravenclaw-Chapter 100: Breakthrough

Nero listened intently, his full attention captured by Muzen's words.

The elderly magician's voice, though calm, carried the weight of experience, and the tale he wove was more than just history, it was a revelation.

"I had been studying both Muga and Muso," Muzen continued, his expression contemplative.

"Now that I think about it, they were two contradicting states of mind." He let out a chuckle, shaking his head.

"It is rather ironic, isn't it? Muga, the Absence of Self, is something that cannot be attained by actively seeking it. The very act of striving for it ensures that it remains out of reach.

It demands absolute freedom from worldly concerns, a detachment from the self.

And yet, Muso is the complete opposite: Peerlessness, an Unrivaled State of dominance and absolute awareness.

It is something that can only be achieved consciously, through absolute control."

Nero nodded slowly, processing the paradox Muzen had laid before him.

It made sense.

Muga was about surrendering the self, while Muso was about mastering everything with perfect clarity.

Two extremes, two absolutes.

"At first, I was consumed with the desire to break my limits and ascend to the rank of Legend," Muzen admitted.

"I pushed myself relentlessly, obsessed with finding the answer.

I was frantic, desperate, like a drowning man grasping at the surface.

But somewhere along the way... something changed.

Perhaps it was exhaustion, or perhaps it was the whispers of my ancestors guiding me, but I stopped grasping.

I let go. And in that moment of release, my mind found resonance with the very state of mind I had been blind to all along, Muga."

He paused, closing his eyes as if reliving that moment. "I did not achieve Muga through force of will. I stumbled upon it when my will had nothing left to grasp.

And once I had touched upon it, I began experimenting."

His eyes opened, gleaming with an intensity that made Nero sit up straighter.

"I started channeling Muga into my magic."

Nero's breath caught. What would magic, shaped by the Absence of Self, look like?

"The results... were beyond anything I could have imagined."

"To wield magic through Muga is to allow magic to exist without obstruction. No intent. No personal will. No concept of 'I am casting a spell.'"

Muzen raised his hand, and for a moment, Nero thought he saw the air tremble, as if something deeper than air had stirred.

"In a normal spell, magic follows intent. You channel it, shape it, direct it."

Muzen traced a slow arc through the air.

"But magic guided by Muga does not seek. It simply is. It follows the flow of the world itself, like a river taking its natural course."

He turned his palm outward, and suddenly, a flicker of nothingness pulsed at his fingertips. The space warped. Nero could feel it even though he couldn't explain what he was sensing.

"A flame fueled by Muga does not burn."

A wisp of fire appeared before Muzen, but it did not radiate heat.

It flickered, yet there was no light in it, just the idea of fire, without the fire itself.

"A shield made with Muga does not resist."

A translucent barrier formed around Muzen, yet there was no force behind it. It was as if the space within had simply been erased, leaving nothing for an enemy's strike to land upon.

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"A blade imbued with Muga does not cut."

He conjured a blade of raw energy. He swung it down, and as it passed through the floor, there was no damage.

But a moment later, a thin line of absence remained where the blade had passed.

As if the very concept of existence had been delayed, and only now did the world realize it had been cut.

"This is the nature of Muga," Muzen explained, voice hushed. "It does not create destruction.

It merely allows what was meant to be destroyed to cease existing.

A man struck by a blade of Muga would not feel pain.

He would not even realize he had been cut.

He would simply be... gone.

Muga is an extreme understanding of Void Principle"

Nero felt his stomach twist at the sheer profundity of what he was witnessing.

A magic that erased rather than attacked.

A power that ignored defense and resistance, because it did not oppose, it simply did not acknowledge.

Muzen's power had elevated him beyond Grandmaster.

He had become a Legend.

But his journey had not ended there.

"I thought I had finally reached the peak," Muzen said.

"I understood what I had been missing, the comprehension of principles beyond mere spellwork.

I continued to refine my magic, my techniques, and my understanding of the world.

And yet... ten years passed, and I noticed something disturbing."

He looked down at his hands, flexing them as if feeling the weight of that decade.

"I was not progressing."

Nero frowned. "You had no bottleneck, but you weren't advancing?"

Muzen nodded. "It was not stagnation in the normal sense.

I was strong, stronger than any magician in Japan.

Yet something inside me refused to evolve.

Every meditation, every analysis of myself, led me back to the same thought."

He exhaled, a long, weary breath. "Regret."

Nero's eyes widened.

"I regretted not achieving Muso."

Muzen's voice had an edge of quiet anguish.

"The deeper I connected with Muga, the more I understood the boundless power of the Void.

But alongside that understanding grew a contradiction, a hunger for Muso.

The more I tried to suppress it, the stronger it became.

It was as if the principle within me was tearing me apart."

Nero swallowed. He could feel the weight of those words.

If a man so powerful felt he was being devoured from the inside, then this was no mere imbalance.

"I realized," Muzen continued, "that if I did not resolve this contradiction, it would consume me.

I had immersed myself in the Absence of Self, yet I yearned for Absolute Presence.

The conflict between these two forces was unraveling my very existence."

He looked at Nero with solemn eyes. "This is not a metaphor. My body, my magic, my very soul, were at war with each other."

Nero felt a chill.

"What did you do?" he asked, voice barely above a whisper.

Muzen's lips curled into a grim smile. "I did the only thing left to do."

He leaned forward.

"I prepared for a ritual."

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