What it means to be powerful
Ed didn't know what the demon meant at the time but after returning to the capital he received news that his daughter-in-law, the queen had given birth to a son but quickly died just after birth, Ed and his son were devasted and no one could really console the queen who lost her child after such a horrifying experience. It was then that Ed finally remembered that demons used curses instead of regular magic and the demon had used his last remaining powers to cast the curse.
The kingdom of Dragnof held a funeral for the deceased late king and queen as well as the wife of their kingdom's hero as well as the death of the newly born prince. There was a week long mourning where the entire capital was gloomy and bleak. But as they say 'time waits for no man' and so after a few years it was announced that the queen was pregnant and the kingdom was celebrating of the joyous news. But the atmosphere in the palace was entirely different. The king and Ed were worried and anxious while Merredith had slowly grown weaker across the years after the incident.
They were currently outside the royal quarters as they heard the screams of Merredith inside. After 12 hours of torture for them, the doors to the quarters were opened and they could hear the cries of a baby inside. But the doctor opening the doors didn't look happy at all and this confirmed their worries and quickly went inside without a word.
Inside the room a group of maids as well as several doctors were frantically moving about as the pale faced and scrawny form of Merredith was holding her newborn daughter. Although she looked frail and was at the verge of death she had a smile on her face as tears streamed down her face. She looked to her husband and father-in-law and motioned for them to come to her. They quickly rushed to her side and the king sat beside his queen with tears streaming down his face, both from happiness of seeing his daughter as well the condition of his beloved wife. While the healers and mages were trying their best to save her life, Merredith spoke softly, barely above a whisper. "Edmund, please take care of our daughter, make sure she is showered in love and happiness, father you are the strongest person i have ever known so please protect my daughter for me". "She will have everything she ever needs, she needs the love of her parents so please my love, don't give up!! She needs you, I! need you", the king begged his wife as he barely suppressed his grief. Ed simply stayed at the bedside with tears in his eyes, he couldn't stop blaming himself for everything, his brother and his wifes death, his beloved's death, his grandson, and now his daughter-in-law.
He felt like he was living his own hell as everything he cared for was slowly taken away and he couldn't do anything so save them. The voice of his daughter broke him out of his thoughts as he heard her say, "I'm sorry dear, but i know my time has come, please take care of our daughter and remember, i will always be watching over you all. Her name...her-her name will be Irene....Irene Agustus". After saying this she lightly kissed the new born now named Irene on the forehead then rested her head on the pillow as her condition continued to deteriorate and her eyelids became heavier, she gazed at her husband and with her last remaining strength whispered, "I love you".
The announcement of the new princess was drowned by the news of the death of the queen. King Edmund II Agustus was a different man after the death of his wife. He used to have a warm smile on his face and hand an easy going personality, but now had a cold look and rarely spoke unless necessary. He drowned himself in his work and barely paid attention to his own daughter. And so, Irene grew up under the care of her grandfather and barely saw her father. She was a curious child and loved to learn about everything, especially magic. She inherited her mother's kind nature as well as scarlet red hair. She would spend most of her time in the library since she learne to read at the age of 2. She wanted to be acknowledged by her father, but he rarely spoke to her or even acknowledged her presence, this made her cry many a times at night and was the cause of several arguments between the king and Ed across the years.
After her awakening it was found that she had a rather large origin and had aptitude for enchantment magic and had an inborn ability to sense magic, just like Blake. She was more of a bookworm rather than a fighter, so Ed decided to train her in staffmanship apart from her magic so that she had something to fall back to incase her magic wasn't enough. She trained hard so that she may get the recognition of her father and even developed a magic with her magic sense she called 'eye magic' where see could view a certain area by making a large eye appear above the chosen area, there would be a cross shaped pattern on both her eye and the summoned eye while the magic is active. Her talent in enchantment magic was so high, that the magic that was seen as a support type magic became a dangerous magic in her hands. She could enchant her self, allies, weapons, clothes, even the land and itself to attack her foes. All in all she was a prodigy in magic and Ed was proud of her. A few after her 12 birthday, while she was training her father visited her and she was bubbling with happiness but, instead of greeting her, he simply came to announce her betrothal to the son of a general in the neighbouring military country of Rustmore in order settle political disputes at their borders.
For the first time in her life she was angry and shouted at her father. The king was surprised at the outburst of the normally caring and happy girl, but then turned angry and then a heated argument ensued where the king said he never wanted another child and oy wanted his beloved but that she had take that away from him.
Immediately after he uttered those words a giant pressure rained down on him as Ed suddenly appeared beside Irene and continued to pressure his son. The ground beneath him began to crack as he was brought to his knees and almost lost consciousness, Irene woke up out of her shock and asked Ed to let him go. Ed reluctantly gave in to his daughters request, after which Irene ran into her chambers. After gazing at her departing figure Ed asked what the hell happened to him and what could have ever possessed his mind to say such words to his own daughter, but the king didn't listen to his words and bit back that it was his fault everything happened as they did. Hearing those words from his own son, Ed's fragile heart shattered as he had been suffering from the thought that everything was his fault.
So without uttering a single word, he silently walked away and after leaving a letter to Irene and where to find him if she ever wanted to, he left the kingdom and settled in his now cabin the forest.
After hearing the incredible but sad life of his grandpa, Blake couldn't stop the tears rolling down his face as he silently hugged Ed and began to whisper that it wasn't his fault and that everything was simply out of his control. Hearing the consoling words of Blake, Ed simply wept and hugged him grandson tightly.
After the emotional story ended and they stopped their tears Ed said,"I'm sorry didn't tell you my story before but as you have heard.....I don't really want to talk about it much. But now that you know who i really am, i want you to promise me something after i teach you my magic". "It's okay grandpa i don't blame you for anything, you took me in when i didn't have anything and have always been good to me....i...i love you grandpa and please ask me anything, i will do anything!", Blake said with conviction. He truly did love his grandpa Ed and would really do anything for him.
Hearing Blake's words Ed smiled and said,"I love you too Blake, all i ask is that after you learn my magic, i want you to go deliver a letter to my son and to protect my granddaughter Irene, even though i haven't seen her since she was 12 i know that she probably doesn't have much friends and i want you to be her friend, help her and always be there for her".
Blake looked at Ed in the eyes and said, "I promise". Ed nodded his head then got up, "Thank you my boy, it would really put this old man's heart at ease knowing my grandson and granddaughter are looking after each other". "Hehe, whats this old man, feeling like finally hitting the grave are you. I thought you were like super strong, where'd all your boasting go", Blake said in order to lighten the mood. Hearing his words, Ed had a twitch in his eyes as he smacked the back of Blake's head and shouted, "Damn brat!!! Whose going to the grave! if you don't shut up, i will send 'you' to an early grave".
After a few more bantering they finally decided to continue their training but found that the sun was setting so settled to start their training tomorrow and went inside the house to eat breakfast.
After they cleaned up after dinner the grandpa-grandson duo were in the living room sitting facing each other, as Ed began to summarise the basics of being a mage and magic in general.
Magic has been on Earthland ever since the 'The One Magic' existed. It was present in everything and was basically like oxygen as everything depended on it. Every thing from the soil to the air to every living being had ethernano, the building block of magic in them.
For every other creature except for humans, magic comes naturally and they are able to use it instinctually, like breathing. But for humans, they developed magic in order for a means of survival, and as they developed with time the ones able to use magic were termed as mages.
Every human awakens their magic at the age of 10 after which the quantity of their magic dictates wether they are able to become mages or not. Normally most awakened humans have a small origin, that is the container or vessel within the body that stores the ethernano or magic of the person. The size of this vessel determines the capability of a person's magic. A normal person's origin is so small that it can only sustain a small passive boost and are unable to exert their magic for anything without using outside help, like using a wand that contains a lacrima to cast spells. A lacrima is a sort of battery that stores ethernano that can be used to power various devices. But if a person awakens with a large origin or vessel, they are guaranteed to be able to become a mage as well as the size of the origin determines his future attainment in magic.
If we were to convert magic into units, then a normal person would have about 80 - 100 units at their awakening, since they don't have enough magic to even cast the most basic spell, they are unable to train or expand their origin and therefore would have at most 150-170units during their lifetime.
Whereas, a person who awakens with about 200-300 units would be able to become mages and train their magic, but due to the limited size of their origin, there can't be much increase so they would have about 300 - 450 units at most during their lifetime. To compare an average adult wyvern has about 12000 units of magic.
The starting point of the awakened origin is very important for anyone wanting to become strong. For someone who awakens a large amount of magic, about 1000 - 2000 units, they would have much faster increase in size of origin as well as strength.
This is because even the constant passive flow of magic inside the body nourishes the body and strengthens the body to incredible levels. Coupled with the increased gravity of the planet, a 12 year old would probably be stronger then an average adult on earth.
Following that same principle, some one who has awakened a large origin has more magic running through his body, which in turn leads to a stronger body. The stronger the body, the more the origin is able to store magic. This cycle induces a fast growth in strength and thus people with enormous magic power grow stronger faster and faster.
This is why Blake said that Ed's technique was a cheat, Even without using any sort of spell, he is constantly using his magic by compressing it outside his body as well as circulating it inside his body to nourish it inside out. This leads to massive jumps in capacity of the origin. So in a single year Blake origin went from a capacity of 4000 - 120000 units as an example of quantity. Meaning he had a about 30 times an increase in strength. This huge multiplier relies on the fact that with his base origin that was already abnormally large the magic nourishment he got was also equally large.
So a mage with 980 units base would get from about 12 to 15 times the multiplier. This explains why many of the characters like Erza and Mirajane are S-ranks even though they are in their early 20's.