Chapter 161: Definitely Not Dark Magic
What Regulus wanted wasn't merely to copy the Mandrake's properties. He wanted to understand them. Then surpass them.
And he didn't want the Mandrake's decomposition alone. He wanted decomposition itself.
Weathering and erosion in the physical world: rock slowly stripped away by wind and rain, whole slabs becoming gravel, gravel becoming sand.
That was decomposition.
Structural collapse at the level of enchantment: a precise magical circuit severed by external force, the spell failing, the magical construct reverting to raw materials.
Also decomposition.
The breakdown of living tissue: cells losing function, organs ceasing to cooperate, a whole that once ran and leapt and thought becoming a corpse.
Still decomposition.
The undermining of a magical artifact's very foundation: the magical imprint bonded to an object erased, a family heirloom passed down for a thousand years returning to ordinary metal and wood.